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MOVEMENTS 


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PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^Jj 


Purchased   by  the   Hamill   Missionary   Fund. 


BV  2060  .F73  1904 

Fowler,  Charles  Henry,  1837-^ 

1908. 
Missions  and  world  movements 


Missions  and  World  Movements 


Missions 

and 

World   Movements 

By  ^ 

Bishop  Charles  H.  Fowler 

An  address  delivered  before  the 
Eastern  Missionary  Con- 
vention of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,     October    13-15,     1903 

\     r 


NEW     YORK:     EATON     &     MAINS 
CINCINNATI:  JENNINGS   &    PYE 


^ 


The  Philadelphia  Convention  Addresses  are  pub- 
lished in  a  series  of  seven  small  volumes,  of 
which  this  is  one.     The  volumes  are  entitled: 

A  CALL  TO  ADVANCE 

MISSIONS  AND  WORLD  MOVEMENTS 

THE  ASIATIC  FIELDS 

THE  AFRICAN,  EUROPEAN,  AND 
LATIN  AMERICAN  FIELDS 

GENERAL  SURVEY  AND  HOME  FIELDS 

YOUNG  PEOPLE  AND  MISSIONS 

THE  MISSIONARY  WORKSHOP 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
Jennings  &  Pye 


Copyright,  1904,  by 
Eaton  &  Mains 


Missions  and  World 
Movements. 


♦ 


Missions  and  World  Movements  fully 
stated  would  answer  the  whys  of  human 
history ;  why  it  runs  thus  and  thus.  Mount 
Calvary  is  the  key  that  unlocks  the  mystery. 
Redemption  is  God's  objective  point.  What- 
ever God  says  goes  in  a  Missionary  Conven- 
tion; goes  finally  in  human  history.  I  have 
seen  throngs  of  Hindus  bathing  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna.  They 
believed  that  at  the  junction  of  these  two 
sacred  rivers  there  was  also  a  third,  a  holy 
and  invisible  river  coming  down  from  the 
throne  of  God  that,  mingling  with  the  two 
earthly  rivers,  cleansed  the  bathers  and  made 
them  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  So  we 
5 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

hold  that  where  the  great  streams  of  secular 
events  and  of  Church  movements  mingle, 
there  is  also  another  stream  coming  down 
from  God's  Almighty  Providence  that  trans- 
forms these  streams  and  orders  their  move- 
ments in  the  interest  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
This  stream  of  Providence  comes  to  the  sur- 
face in  the  history  of  Israel,  but  it  sweeps 
on  under  all  history.  Cyrus  took  Babylon 
from  polytheists,  idolaters,  and  extended  the 
domains  of  Monotheism.  Mohammed 
trampled  down  idolatrous  altars.  The 
bloody  Eagles  of  Rome  quieted  and  com- 
pacted the  clashing  tribes,  and  lifted  a  wide 
shield  that  protected  St.  Paul  everywhere 
from  the  malice  and  bigotry  of  his  country- 
men. German  and  English  monarchs  turned 
back  the  power  of  the  pope,  and  made  room 
for  religious  freedom.  Wesley  touched  the 
dead  corpse  of  formal  Christianity;  it  felt 
the  throb  of  new  life,  and  stood  upon  its  feet. 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

The  Trend  of  the  Ages  is  Godward. 

Latest  evolutionists  hold  that  natural  se- 
lection is  under  this  law.  There  has  always 
been  one  end  in  view  up  through  all  animal 
increments  to  the  perfected  physical,  up  into 
the  intellectual,  and  up,  by  the  same  law  of 
selection,  to  the  spiritual.  From  the  first 
speck  of  mist  in  the  universe  on  through 
the  inconceivable  lapses  of  duration  there 
has  been  a  steady  trend  toward  the  perfect 
man.  This  ideal  of  evolution  Christianity 
has  realized  in  the  man  of  Nazareth.  There 
is  that  in  things  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness. My  faith  does  not  faint  or  weary  in 
this  long  ascent.  This  only  gives  me  a  good 
start  into  an  endless  future.  The  Supreme 
Power  who  has  worked  and  watched  so  long 
will  not  now  sleep  nor  forget  me. 

On  the  way  to  the  North  Cape  our 
steamer  brushed  against  the  branches  of 
trees  on  the  sides  of  the  mountains  that  rose 
7 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

almost  straight  up  out  of  the  sea.  I  won- 
dered how  it  could  be  safe  to  sail  so  close. 
But  marine  engineers  said  to  me:  "It  is 
safe.  The  shape  and  slant  of  the  land  above 
water  indicates  the  shape  and  slant  of  the 
land  below."  So  the  unnumbered  ages  of 
God's  thought  in  the  past  assures  me  of  care 
for  endless  ages  to  come.  When  God  tires 
out  it  will  be  so  late,  that  the  universe  will 
have  been  rolled  together  like  a  scroll  and 
folded  away  like  a  vesture,  and  we  shall 
have  grown  so  old  and  strong  on  the  wide 
fields  of  our  eternal  activity  that  we  can 
only  dimly  recall  the  little  kindergarten 
patch  of  this  world's  missions.  With  Jesus 
here  in  our  humanity,  we  see  what  is  pos- 
sible. We  can  poorly  realize  what  we  shall 
be;  but  this  we  know,  we  shall  be  trans- 
formed into  His  likeness,  our  vile  bodies 
shall  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious 
body,  and  we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall 
see  him  as  he  is.  God  seeks  always  with  all 
8 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

power  and  with  all  wisdom,  with  all  unflag- 
ging, heartaching  love  to  lift  up  and  save  all 
men.  He  is  no  respecter  of  persons;  he 
willeth  not  the  death  of  him  that  dieth,  but 
would  that  all  men  would  turn  and  live. 
God's  Providence  sweeps  round  the  world 
and  through  all  time.  All  available  forces 
and  agencies  are  marshaled  and  marched, 
sent  into  the  field  to  help  forward  his  re- 
deeming purpose.  So  the  great  world  forces 
that  seem  so  hard  and  hostile  are  yet  handled 
by  him.  They  are  his  messengers,  his  mis- 
sionaries. Even  the  wrath  of  men  shall 
praise  him,  and  the  remainder  of  wrath  he 
will  restrain.  All  things  shall  work  together 
for  good  for  his  children  and  for  his  cause. 
True,  many  statesmen  handling  heathen 
countries  for  profit,  many  nominal  Chris- 
tians in  mission-fields  for  trade,  many  trav- 
elers wishing  to  make  books  for  the  market, 
and  many  sea-going  officers  who  barely 
reach  open  ports,  are  the  natural  enemies  of 
9  9 


Missions  And  World  Movements. 

missionaries  and  of  their  work.  The  lives 
of  many  of  these  men  are  rebuked,  and  their 
practices  are  interfered  with ;  therefore  they 
are  quick  to  criticise  what  they  never  inves- 
tigate. The  East  India  Company  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  work  for  years.  Government 
officials  frequently  are  willing  to  find  scape- 
goats, and  therefore  criticise  and  complain. 
But  in  spite  of  all  these  surface  views,  the 
facts  remain  that  missionaries  usually  lead 
the  way  into  these  lands.  They  furnish 
much  information  for  government  adminis- 
trators and  for  scientists.  The  secretaries 
and  interpreters  of  the  government  embas- 
sies to  unopened  heathen  countries  have 
nearly  always  been  missionaries.  When  the 
ministers  of  the  civilized  governments  were 
besieged  in  Peking,  and  the  whole  world 
stood  aghast  hourly  expecting  the  horrible 
massacre  to  be  consummated,  it  was  a  mis- 
sionary, an  honored  member  of  this  body 

that  conducted  the  defense,  without  which 
10 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

deliverance  would  have  been  impossible. 
When  our  American  troops  made  their  way 
into  Peking  under  the  wall  through  the  bed 
of  the  river,  as  the  Persians  made  their  way 
into  Bablyon  and  into  the  feast  of  Belshaz- 
zar,  it  was  a  missionary  of  our  own  missions 
who  led  the  troops  into  the  city.  We  feel 
that  it  is  high  time  for  this  irresponsible  and 
unjust  criticism  to  stop. 

Pardon  me  that  I  have  turned  aside  a 
moment  to  repel  these  gorillas.  To  repel 
gorillas,  did  I  say?  No,  not  to  repel  goril- 
las ;  only  to  brush  away  these  gnats.  Let  me 
address  myself  to  the  great  forces  that  fill 
this  field. 

Our  theme,  like  a  cube  in  geometry,  has 
three  dimensions  —  length,  breadth,  and 
thickness.  Its  factors  are  nations  and  races ; 
its  fields  are  seas  and  continents;  its  sweep 
is  the  duration  of  mankind.  It  is  ethno- 
logical, touching  all  the  families  of  men.  It 
is  political,  reaching  all  the  world  govern- 
ii 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

ments.  It  is  ethical,  handling  the  principles 
of  the  moral  government  of  God.  It  has 
chiefly  to  do  with  the  Mongol,  the  Slav,  the 
Saxon,  and  the  Latin  and  the  African  races. 
It  involves  paganism,  heathenism  and  the 
Greek  Church,  Romanism  and  Protestant- 
ism. As  a  map  of  the  world  can  show  only 
the  few  very  great  cities,  so  we  can  only 
touch  a  very  few  of  the  principal  world 
movements.  The  Latin  races  in  the  Eastern 
Hemisphere  have  a  great  past,  and  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere  they  promise  a  great 
future.  But  we  must  pass  these  important 
fields  with  the  prayer  and  hope  that  our 
missionary  work  may  rejuvenate  the  one 
and  emancipate  the  other.  The  African  race 
is  a  far  more  remote  dominion ;  this  also  we 
must  pass.  Let  us  fix  our  thought  rather 
upon  the  uncounted  baptized  and  unbaptized 
heathen,  whose  movements  claim  our  atten- 
tion. 


12 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

The  Pacific  the  Storm-center  of  this 
Twentieth  Century. 

The  Pacific  is  the  storm-center  of  the 
world.  Low  political  barometers  are  trav- 
ersing its  vast  surface.  Danger-signals  are 
exhibited  on  nearly  every  coast.  All  the 
great  Capitals  are  watching  their  ventures. 
The  storm-center  has  left  the  Mediterran- 
ean and  the  British  Channel  and  the  North 
Atlantic,  and  now  draws  all  eyes  to  the  Yel- 
low Sea  and  the  Pacific.  De  Tocqueville 
said :  "The  United  States  was  a  new  factor 
in  the  world,  the  significance  of  which  even 
the  imagination  could  not  grasp."  Creasy, 
the  English  historian,  in  185 1  predicted  the 
forcible  opening  of  Japan  by  the  United 
States  and  ■  vast  changes  in  the  Orient. 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  arguing  in  the  United 
States  Senate  for  a  Pacific  Railroad,  pointed 
to  the  setting  sun  and  said,  "There,  there, 
gentlemen,  is  the  East  I"  William  H.  Sew- 
13 


Missions  and,  World  Movements. 

ard,  in  Congress  pleading  in  the  interest  of 
commerce  for  more  accurate  surveys  of  the 
North  Pacific,  gifted  with  the  vision  of  the 
Seer,  said:  "The  Pacific  Ocean,  its  shores, 
its  islands,  and  the  vast  regions  beyond,  will 
become  the  chief  theater  of  events  in  the 
world's  great  hereafter."  And  again,  this 
great  statesman,  in  1852,  standing  in  the 
United  States  Senate  Chamber  by  the  side 
of  the  bier  of  Henry  Clay,  said :  "Certainly, 
sir,  the  great  lights  of  the  Senate  have  set. 
We  are  rising  to  a  more  sublime  stage  of 
national  progress,  that  of  expanding  wealth 
and  rapid  territorial  aggrandizement.  .  .  . 
Commerce  has  brought  the  ancient  conti- 
nents near  to  us,  and  created  necessities  for 
new  positions.  .  .  .  Perhaps  connections  or 
colonies  there.  .  .  .  Even  Prudence  will 
soon  be  required  to  decide  whether  distant 
regions  East  or  West  shall  come  under  our 
protection,  or  be  left  to  aggrandize  a  rap- 
idly spreading  and  hostile  domain  of  des- 
'4 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

potism.  Sir,  who  among  us  is  equal  to 
these  mighty  questions?  I  fear  there  is  no 
one. 

Since  these  inspired  words  were  uttered 
more  than  fifty  years  have  joined  the  silent 
and  endless  procession  of  the  past.  That 
statesman,  like  the  one  voiceless  at  his  feet, 
has  passed  from  the  stage  of  action  into  the 
chiseled  marble  and  molded  bronze,  and  into 
the  page  of  history.  But  these  "mighty 
questions"  are  standing  here,  like  mailed 
warriors,  to  dispute  our  march  into  the  fu- 
ture. Whether  we  wish  to  enter  the  lists 
or  not,  we  must,  with  the  aid  of  the  facts 
dropped  at  our  feet  by  this  half-century, 
make  to  these  "mighty  questions"  answers 
with  which  we  can  humbly  and  fearlessly 
face  God. 

The  apocalyptic  angel  for  this  twentieth 

century,   calling  the  nations  to  judgment, 

stands  with  one  foot  on  the  Pacific  and  the 

other  on  the  continent  of  Asia.     The  Pa- 

15 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

cific  washes  five  continents  out  of  six.  Asia 
contains  the  three  greatest  empires  on  earth 
— British,  Russian,  Chinese.  It  cradles 
three-fourths  of  mankind.  It  has  the  loftiest 
mountains  and  the  most  important  rivers. 
It  has  the  widest  stretches  of  arable  land, 
and  the  most  productive  soil.  It  had  an 
empire  extending  from  the  Arctic  Sea  to  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  from  Germany  to  the 
Yellow  Sea.  "It  built  the  most  wonderful 
of  all  cities,  Babylon,  and  the  richest  of  all 
palaces,  Persepolis,  and  the  most  beautiful 
of  all  tombs,  the  Taj  Mahal."  It  has  given 
us  music  and  the  drama,  gunpowder  and  the 
compass — guide  on  the  earth,  and  the  Bible 
— guide  to  heaven.  It  has  generated  the 
most  philosophies,  and  is  the  birthplace  of 
all  the  great  religions.  It  has  produced  "the 
five  greatest  moral  and  religious  teachers 
of  the  world — Moses,  Buddha,  Confucius, 
Jesus,  and  Mohammed ;"  the  wisest  of  kings 
and  the  bloodiest  of  conquerors.  This  is 
16 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  land  "where  Abraham  received  the  cove- 
nant, and  Moses  the  law;  where  the  first 
Adam  sinned,  and  the  second  suffered." 
This  is  great  Asia,  whose  population  to-day 
is  on  the  increase,  and  whose  virility,  with 
the  aid  of  Russian  infusions,  equals  its 
palmiest  days;  whose  commerce  is  the 
magnet  of  every  metropolis,  and  whose 
markets  are  the  inspiration  of  every  great 
nation  and  the  necessity  of  all  the  dense 
populations.  With  new  blood  monopolizing 
her  highways ;  with  rival  leaders,  the  Saxon 
and  the  Slav,  fighting  with  their  backs  to 
the  North  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  it  is 
impossible  for  the  imagination  to  measure 
its  importance.  Not  a  harbor  open  to  the 
Pacific  but  feels  the  throbbing  of  its  swell- 
ing pulse,  and  not  a  nation  with  a  Pacific 
exposure  that  can  safely  sleep  at  the  present 
low-tide  mark. 


17 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

China   the   Problem    whose    Solution 
will  Stamp  the  World's  Civil- 
ization with  Absolut- 
ism or  Freedom. 

Turkey  is  the  sick  man  in  Europe,  China 
is  the  sick  man  in  Asia.  I  can  not  discuss 
her  special  mission  work.  I  can  only  enter 
the  Yellow  Ward  in  the  World's  Hospital, 
feel  the  patient's  pulse,  look  at  her  tongue, 
question  the  nurses,  and  sit  down  a  few  mo- 
ments with  doctors  and  surgeons  in  the 
ante-room.  The  patient  seems  to  have  creep- 
ing paralysis.  It  may  be  Locomotor  Ataxia. 
It  may  be  only  the  trick  of  the  old  serpent. 
The  doctors  are  timid  about  diagnosing  the 
case.  They  all  agree  that  whatever  ails  her 
body  the  malady  has  not  reached  her  intel- 
lect. Her  cunning  has  never  been  surpassed. 
The  Russian  surgeon  has  brought  his  chest 
of  instruments,  yet  he  seems  to  hesitate  to 
venture  an  opinion.    Once  when  the  Roman 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Conclave  was  walled  in  to  elect  a  new  pope, 
and  no  one  of  the  Catholic  monarchs  was 
certain  of  electing  his  candiate,  in  order  to 
gain  time  they  elected  an  aged  cardinal  who 
was  too  sick  and  feeble  to  stand  alone.  As 
soon  as  the  ballot  was  announced  the  sick 
man  arose,  dropped  his  crutches,  and 
straightened  up  in  vigorous  manhood,  say- 
ing, "Now,  gentlemen,  you  have  a  ruler." 
A  long  and  powerful  reign  verified  his  state- 
ment. So  it  is  difficult  to  treat  this  sick  man 
of  Asia,  who  has  the  longevity  of  the  for- 
ests, the  rough  endurance  of  the  rhinoceros, 
the  stately  dignity  of  the  lion,  the  cunning 
of  the  fox,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent. 

The;  Bulk  otf  China 

Is  too  vast  to  be  handled  easily  in  our  minds. 
As  it  was  lying  on  the  map  when  some  of  us 
were  in  school,  it  stretched  through  sixty 
degrees  of  longitude  and  spread  over  forty 
degrees  of  latitude.  It  measured  four  and 
19 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

a  half  million  square  miles.  But  in  the  con- 
vulsions of  recent  years  it  has  shaken  off 
Tibet,  Hi,  Kashgaria,  Mongolia,  and  Korea, 
and  now  Manchuria  is  also  being  given  to 
the  great  Polar  Bear.  There  remains  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand  square  miles 
of  the  best  acreage,  one-third  the  empire  in 
area,  with  eleven-twefths  in  population.  It 
is  over  350,000,000  strong.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  accept  the  recent  statement  of  J.  W. 
Foster,  the  great  authority  on  American  di- 
plomacy, when  he  says:  "It  is  scarcely  an 
exaggeration  in  presence  of  its  history  and 
attainments  to  assert  that  no  nation  or  race 
of  ancient  or  modern  times  has  stronger 
claim  than  the  Chinese  to  be  called  a  great 
people."  They  were  an  ancient  people,  with 
city  and  town  organizations,  with  commerce 
and  trade,  with  arts  and  sciences,  with  his- 
tories and  heroes,  three  thousand  years  be- 
fore there  was  an  Anglo-Saxon.     They  had 

printing  many  centuries  before  Faust  played 
20 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

with  his  blocks ;  and  gunpowder  long  before 
the  last  great  Mohammed  shot  down  the 
gates  and  walls  of  Constantinople.  Their 
compass  directed  their  open  sea  voyages  be- 
yond the  sight  of  mountain  or  beacon  long 
before  Columbus  picked  up  bits  of  strange 
wood  on  the  shores  of  Italy.  They  dug  salt- 
wells  five  thousand  feet  deep  centuries  be- 
fore Solomon  was  born,  and  they  had  civil 
service  examinations  for  office  ages  before 
Abraham  received  the  blessing  from  Mel- 
chizedec.  Surely  they  are  a  great  people. 
When  I  stepped  upon  their  shores  I  felt 
that  I  was  in  another  world.  The  ages 
crumbled  beneath  my  feet,  and  I  instinct- 
ively looked  about  me  for  the  patriarchs  and 
for  the  leaders  of  the  primitive  races.  Phys- 
ically everything  was  turned  around.  Men 
I  met  turned  out  to  the  left ;  men  I  greeted 
shook  their  own  hands  instead  of  mine. 
Scaffoldings  were  built  first,  then  the  houses 
were  built  inside  of  them.  The  mechanic 
21 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

turned  his  auger  and  gimlet  and  screws  to 
the  left  to  make  them  enter.  The  carpenter 
pulled  his  plane  and  his  saw  toward  him, 
and  pushed  his  drawing-knife  from  him. 
Strangers  moving  into  a  new  neighborhood 
called  on  the  people  with  whom  they  wanted 
social  relations.  Soon  one  learns  that  these 
externals  are  only  indices  of  deeper  differ- 
ences. The  very  modes  of  thought  seem 
reversed.  Their  architecture  and  art  and 
very  laws  of  language  are  peculiar.  Busi- 
ness methods,  politics,  literature,  amuse- 
ments, and  worship  are  all  reversed.  While 
the  races  of  the  Orient  often  differ  widely 
from  each  other  in  personal  appearance,  in 
costume  and  speech,  yet  one  feels  a  common 
spirit  among  them  all.  Touch  Asia  any- 
where, and  you  have  the  same  impressions. 
It  is  like  touching  a  tiger,  soft  and  pleasant ; 
yet  you  are  conscious  that  there  are  teeth 
and  claws  concealed  near  by.  There  is  the 
same  politeness  and  dignity  in  manner,  the 
22 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

same  indifference  to  truth,  and  attention  to 
minute  social  laws.  It  is  always  easier  for 
them  to  lie  than  to  offend.  yEsthetics  anni- 
hilates Ethics.  They  respect  successful 
falsehood,  and  judges  who  are  flagrantly 
corrupt.  They  placidly  accept  any  govern- 
ment with  power.  They  admire  a  governor 
who  rides  over  them  and  beheads  them. 
Liberty  would  be  scoffed  by  them.  They 
think  that  there  is  no  use  of  having  power 
unless  you  use  it.  They  do  not  believe  in 
power  that  they  can  not  see.  Honesty  is  a 
myth,  and  a  man  who  does  not  improve  his 
opportunities  is  an  imbecile.  They  are  ob- 
livious of  the  value  of  time,  and  hate  haste 
as  much  as  if  they  had,  like  Methuselah, 
eight  or  nine  centuries  to  kill.  There  is  a 
gulf  between  the  Orientals  and  Occidentals 
as  wide  as  the  gulf  fixed  between  Dives  and 
Lazarus,  yet,  as  in  that  case,  there  are  hu- 
mans on  both  sides.  These  are  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  Asiatics,  from  the  Arc- 
23 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

tic  Ocean  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  from  the 
Black  Sea  to  the  Yellow  Sea. 

These   characteristics,   bad   as   they   are 
throughout  Asia, 

Have  Their  Worst  Development  in 
China. 

Here  their  evil  types  are  confluent  and  ma- 
lignant. The  Chinaman  has  no  public  spirit. 
The  officers  are  paid  to  administer  the  gov- 
ernment; so  let  them  do  it.  The  officers, 
almost  without  exception,  are  unmitigated 
liars  and  thieves,  and  the  mass  of  the  people 
match  them  in  perfidy.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  shame  about  lying.  But  it  is  a  dis- 
grace not  to  put  on  the  best  face.  Treachery 
is  a  virtue.  Li  Hung  Chang  gave  safe  con- 
duct and  assurances  to  the  seven  leading 
captive  generals  of  the  Tai  Ping  Rebellion 
to  dine  with  him  on  his  boat,  and  the  next 
morning  their  heads  were  knocking  about 
\n  the  bay.  Sir  Robert  Hart  was  so  out- 
24 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

raged  by  this  bloody  perfidy  that  it  is  said 
he  hunted  all  day,  revolver  in  hand,  for 
Prince  Li,  determined  to  kill  him  at  sight. 
There  is  no  limit  to  their  mendacity.  The 
higher  the  official,  the  more  monumental  the 
treachery.  In  1793,  Lord  Macartney  was 
the  first  English  Plenipotentiary  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  an  audience  with  the  Emperor. 
He  refused  to  kowtow,  i.  e.,  pound  his  head 
on  the  ground,  for  his  king  knew  no  su- 
perior. The  boat  that  carried  him  up  the 
Peiho  toward  Peking  bore  a  flag  saying, 
"Ambassador  bearing  tribute  from  the 
Country  of  England."  The  high  officials 
took  advantage  of  his  ignorance  of  Chinese 
to  proclaim  this  falsehood.  It  would  take  a 
supernatural  chemistry  to  distill  one  drop 
of  honorable  integrity  out  of  a  nation  like 
that.  It  is  not  strange  that  such  a  people 
left  to  themselves  are  incapable  of  gratitude. 
The  two  men  who  have  served  China  most 
faithfully  for  more  than  half  a  century  in 
3  25 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

most  arduous  and  distinguished  duties,  are 
Sir  Robert  Hart,  head  of  the  Customs  serv- 
ice, whose  integrity  and  honesty  and  lofty 
character  have  never  been  questioned,  and 
Dr.  Martin,  head  of  the  Chinese  College  for 
training  men  for  the  diplomatic  service  of 
China. 

The  greatness  of  these  men  is  only  sur- 
passed by  the  greatness  and  variety  of  their 
public  services.  There  are  no  men  in  all 
Asia  who  deserve  more  from  China  than 
they  do.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  man  in 
the  empire  who  would  not  gladly  protect 
these  two  men  at  all  hazards.  Yet  when 
the  outbreak  against  the  foreigners  culmi- 
nated in  Peking,  no  man  would  lift  a  hand 
to  help  them,  and  they  barely  escaped  with 
their  lives  into  the  protection  of  the  British 
barricades. 

The  empire  is  honeycombed  with  secret 
societies.  The  slyness  and  mystery  of  these 
organizations  are  adapted  to  the  superstition 
26 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

and  suspicion  of  the  Chinese  character. 
These  societies  afford  runways  from  the 
officials  and  from  real  and  imaginary  ene- 
mies. Their  thieves  have  a  king,  who  sells 
immunity  from  their  ravages.  Their  beg- 
gers  also  have  a  king,  who  fixes  the  price 
of  deliverance  from  their  importunities  and 
offensiveness.  It  is  an  unclassified  social 
condition,  where  a  beggar  travels  his  cir- 
cuit on  horseback.  Famine  relief  money 
sent  to  Canton  was  used  to  pay  damages 
awarded  on  account  of  assaults  made  upon 
the  foreign  concession.  When  the  emperor 
orders  that  taxes  be  not  collected  in  a  cer- 
tain district  on  account  of  famine,  the  offi- 
cials often  carefully  delay  posting  the  de- 
cree till  after  the  taxes  have  been  collected. 
Often  when  relief  has  been  distributed  the 
tax-gatherer  follows  close  upon  the  heels 
of  the  charity  agent  and  gathers  up  the 
contributions.  Possibly  these  two  agents 
have  a  co-partnership  in  the  business,  and 
27 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

both  thrive.  I  saw  up  in  the  hills  along 
the  Yang-tse  the  castle  of  a  great  viceroy, 
who  had  cut  off  within  three  scores  of  ten 
thousand  heads,  and  I  saw  some  of  the  heads 
hung  out  over  the  street  in  iron  baskets  like 
ancient  torchlights.  This  viceroy  was  pray- 
ing to  his  gods  to  spare  him  till  he  rounded 
up  the  full  ten  thousand.  Yet  he  would 
quote  from  Mencius  and  other  ancient  clas- 
sics beautiful  sentiments  about  "the  sacred- 
ness  of  human  life."'  Cooke  in  his  "Life 
and  State  Papers  of  a  Chinese  Statesman," 
shows  that  this  statesman  "pockets  the 
money  given  to  him  to  repair  an  embank- 
ment, and  thus  inundates  a  province;  and 
he  deplores  the  land  lost  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil."  Signing  a  treaty  he  said  it 
was  "only  a  deception  for  the  moment,"  yet 
he  exclaims  "against  the  crime  of  perjury." 
The  supreme  irony  known  anywhere  in  the 
world,  in  the  united  judgment  of  the  foreign 
ministers,  is  in  the  inscription  over  the  en- 
28 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

trance  to  the  Yamen,  where  treaties  are  ne- 
gotiated, which  reads,  "The  greatest  happi- 
ness is  in  doing  good."  Like  the  wrecker, 
who  had  picked  up  the  body  of  a  drowned 
man,  when  asked  if  he  tried  to  resuscitate 
him,  said,  "Yes,  sir;  I  picked  his  pockets." 
This  bland,  two-faced  perjury  runs  through- 
out the  empire  from  top  to  bottom.  Very 
rare  exceptions,  one  in  a  thousand  millions, 
are  found,  hardly  enough  to  prove  the  law. 
Li  Hung  Chang  was  sent  to  St.  Peters- 
burg to  protest  against  Russian  encroach- 
ments upon  Manchuria,  and  he  was  at  that 
very  time  in  the  pay  of  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment as  a  director  in  the  Russian  Bank  in 
Peking.  China  is  the  supreme  hypocrite  of 
all  the  races  and  of  all  the  ages.  It  is  a 
compound  of  Judas  Iscariot  and  Ananias, 
perfected  by  the  training  and  practices  of 
four  thousand  years.  It  has  not  the  con- 
science of  Judas,  enabling  it  to  commit  sui- 
cide. It  barely  has  the  smoldering  rem- 
29 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

nants  of  the  moral  sense  of  Ananias,  suffi- 
ficient  to  make  it  susceptible  to  moral  pun- 
ishment. Its  chief  public  virtue  is  fear  of 
power.  The  only  binding  force  in  its  cove- 
nants is  in  the  mouth  of  a  double-shotted 
cannon. 

This  Moral  Mummy  is  Embalmed  and 
Wrapped  in  Superstitions 

Four  thousand  years  old,  and  more  than 
ten  thousand  layers  deep.  These  super- 
stitions touch  every  act  of  life  and  every 
word  and  every  secret  thought.  They  are 
victims  of  luck,  fortune-tellers,  and  necro- 
mancy. They  live  in  a  world  packed  to  the 
very  stars  with  powerful  spirits,  which  must 
not  be  offended.  All  ranks  and  classes  from 
the  emperor  down  to  the  poorest  cooley,  are 
steeped  and  boiled  and  parboiled  in  super- 
stition. By  these  superstitions  the  univer- 
sity men  and  the  priests  govern  and  rob  and 
torment  all  classes.  A  priest  in  charge  of  a 
30 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

temple  in  Canton  pays  many  thousand  dol- 
lars ($40,000)  for  the  control  of  the  temple. 
He  robs  the  people  by  his  monopolies  to  pay 
this  fee  and  enrich  himself.  Poor  people 
pay  to  him  ten  times  as  much  for  an  incense 
stick  as  it  costs  elsewhere.  Only  sticks  pur- 
chased in  that  temple  can  be  burned  there. 
Women  pay  enormous  extortions  for  the 
privilege  of  sleeping  on  mats  in  the  temple. 
This  privilege  is  said  to  increase  their 
chances  for  male  progeny. 

All  China  is  robbed  and  persecuted  and 
tormented  by  these  cruel  superstitions.  Be- 
hind the  viceroy's  Yamen  in  Tientsin — that 
was  hi  Hung  Chang's  Yamen,  or  Court — 
there  was  a  temple  to  Ta  Wang,  the  wind 
and  water  dragon.  A  boat  conveying  a  pre- 
fect was  nearly  overturned  by  a  sudden 
storm.  Some  boatman  with  his  pole  must 
have  carelessly  disturbed  Ta  Wang.  Care- 
ful search  was  made,  and  a  small  snake 
was  discovered  near  the  railroad  bridge. 
3i 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Profuse  apologies  and  prostrations  were 
made  to  it,  and  it  was  carefully  carried  with 
the  greatest  pomp  and  ceremony  to  the  Ta 
Wang  temple.  China  is  the  deepest  pit  of 
heathenism,  where  Satan  brews  his  most 
powerful  charms  and  his  most  deadly  moral 
plagues. 

No  human  plummet  can  fathom  this  sea 
of  corruption.  Two  hundred  thousand  na- 
tives in  Hong  Kong,  many  of  them  born 
there  or  living  there  fifty  years  in  close  con- 
tact with  intelligent  foreigners,  glad  to  have 
the  protection  of  the  British  flag  and  the 
high  wages  of  a  British  city,  where  silver 
is  as  abundant  as  brass  on  the  main  land, 
and  where  no  mandarin  can  extort  half  or 
any  part  of  their  wages;  glad  to  be  taught 
English  without  cost,  so  as  to  earn  the  high 
wages  of  European  clerks  and  have  the  free 
service  of  English  physicians;  glad  to  be 
under  incorruptible  magistrates  and  just 
policemen;  glad  to  live  in  a  model  foreign 
32 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

city,  where  they  can  live  as  they  please  and 
follow  their  own  customs,  and  worship  their 
own  gods,  with  everything  to  help  them, 
and  nothing  to  disturb  them, — in  spite  of  all 
this  they  are  in  all  ranks  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, too  few  to  count,  as  deeply  dyed 
with  superstitions  as  any  who  never  even 
saw  a  civilized  man.  They  are  bland  and 
smiling  and  silent,  while  nothing  unusual 
jars  the  public  mind.  But  when  the  plague 
came  all  their  old  superstitions  came  to  the 
surface.  They  cursed  and  hated  the  for- 
eigners, and  hid  their  sick  from  the  doctors, 
and  refused  to  go  to  the  hospitals,  and  as- 
saulted both  doctors  and  nurses,  and  threat- 
ened to  burn  the  city  and  poison  the  wells. 
They  believed  every  old  superstition,  and 
trusted  their  incantations  and  vile,  filthy 
remedies.  The  influences  of  the  clean  and 
helpful  civilization  in  which  they  had  lived 
for  half  a  century,  but  which  did  not  con- 
cern itself  much  about  their  religious  en- 
33 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

lightenment,  vanished  in  one  hour.  There 
remained  only  hatred  for  the  foreigners  and 
the  undisputed  reign  of  Satan.  No  human 
power  can  save  this  people.  Only  the  al- 
mighty grace  of  God,  that  can  create  anew 
the  elements  and  energies  of  a  moral  nature, 
can  make  them  moral  and  trustworthy  for 
the  uses  of  civilization. 

The  one  virtue  in  the  Chinese  character 
that  has  survived  these  long  centuries  of  op- 
pression and  superstition  that  keeps  society 
from  utter  dissolution,  and  the  State  from 
annihilation,  is  the 

Family  Tie. 

It  begins  with  the  devotion  of  children, 
strengthens  with  every  year  of  natural  life, 
and  extends  to  the  worlds  out  of  sight,  in  an 
absorbing  worship  of  parents  and  ancestors. 
There  is  no  limit  to  the  thoroughness  and 
cruelty  with  which  penalty  is  inflicted  upon 
a  child  that  kills  his  father.  In  Foochow 
34 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

I  saw  the  traces  of  this  penalty  upon  a  young 
man  who  had  killed  his  father  with  a  hoe 
as  they  worked  in  the  field.  The  officers 
chained  him  to  a  post  in  the  execution  place, 
and  compelled  his  mother  to  cut  out  the 
first  piece  from  his  breast.  Then  they  hacked 
him  slowly  into  small  pieces  till  there  was 
only  a  heap  of  refuse  at  the  foot  of  the  stake. 
Then  they  executed  the  mother  for  having 
such  a  son,  and  the  neighbors  living  next  on 
either  side  for  having  such  a  neighborhood. 
Next  the  officer,  like  a  policeman,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  keep  order  in  that  beat,  was 
executed.  The  officer  above  him,  like  our 
sheriff,  was  banished.  The  Tawtai,  or  gov- 
ernor, of  the  district  was  removed  from 
office.  Then  they  burned  down  the  house 
in  which  the  man  had  lived,  and  dug  up  the 
ground  under  it  to  the  depth  of  two  feet 
and  carted  the  dirt  off  and  dumped  it  into 
the  river.  They  intended  to  wipe  out  that 
wickedness  so  it  could  not  spread. 
35 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Every  Emphasis  is  Placed  upon  the 
Family. 

It  is  the  unit  in  the  State.  The  entire  fam- 
ily is  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  each 
member.  There  is  a  mortgage  of  ancient 
and  constant  custom,  an  unwritten  law,  that 
makes  the  family  responsible  for  the  debts 
of  the  father.  There  is  only  one  way  to  dis- 
charge a  debt  in  China,  and  that  is  to  pay 
it.  It  follows  the  family  like  an  avenging 
spirit,  not  to  the  third  or  fourth  generation, 
but  forever  till  it  is  paid.  The  family  must 
take  care  of  its  own  poor.  One  man  thrives, 
the  indolent  and  thriftless  live  on  him.  He 
must  employ  them  even  to  the  exclusion  of 
competent  service,  and  often  even  to  the 
ruin  of  his  business.  This  family  feeling 
widens  a  little,  reaching  neighborhoods  and 
clans,  but  fails  to  strengthen  the  empire. 
The  family  tie  is  the  chief  virtue  planted 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden  that  has  survived  all 
36 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  migrations,  and  all  the  changes  in  dy- 
nasty, and  all  the  centuries.  It  absorbs  all 
the  natural  vigor  of  patriotism  and  all  the 
supernatural  inspiration  of  religion.  Its 
roots  entwine  the  earth,  and  its  branches  em- 
brace the  heavens. 

Another  element  of  strength  in  the  China- 
man is  his 

Colonizing  Power. 

He  crosses  all  seas  and  burrows  into  all 
continents.  He  surpasses  the  Saxon  in  abil- 
ity to  toil  in  all  climates.  He  matches  the 
Russian  in  enduring  Arctic  storms,  and  sur- 
passes the  Negro  in  working  in  the  tropics. 
He  is  the  one  cosmopolitan,  at  home  every- 
where as  if  he  owned  the  world.  Silent, 
gentle,  submissive,  industrious,  economical, 
temperate,  all-enduring,  he  thrives  every- 
where— on  the  mountains,  in  the  deserts,  on 
the  plains,  in  the  islands.  As  the  serpent, 
with  his  one  ability  to  crawl,  competes  in 
37 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

various  fields,  without  fins  swims  with  the 
fish,  without  hands  climbs  with  the  mon- 
key, and  without  feet  runs  with  the  horse, 
so  the  Chinaman  with  his  one  ability  of 
adaptation  competes  successfully  with  the 
sailor  on  the  sea,  and  with  the  frontiersman 
in  the  wilderness,  and  with  the  miner  under 
the  earth,  and  with  the  exile  in  wanderings. 
He  does  not  ask  for  a  fair  chance.  He  asks 
only  for  a  chance,  so  does  not  try  to  crowd 
anybody.  Once  landed,  he  abides.  The  in- 
dividual changes,  but  the  kind  continues. 
A  human  microbe,  he  multiplies.  Not  being 
a  politician,  all  governments  that  let  him 
alone  suit  him.  He  never  breeds  nor  joins 
revolutions  abroad.  Not  being  a  specialist, 
all  industries  with  a  possible  margin  attract 
him.  He  never  boycotts  any  trade.  Not 
being  ambitious,  except  for  more  cash,  all 
social  orders  that  pay  for  services  are  equally 
satisfactory  to  him.  He  is  pleasing  to 
the  greatest  variety  of  women.  He  marries 
38 


Missions  and  Woru>  Movements. 

through  the  widest  range  of  races.  Like  a 
mongoose  he  can  run  through  any  passage- 
way. Though  fond  of  a  palace,  he  can  live 
in  a  closet  and  make  a  home  anywhere.  As 
gravity  draws  all  rivers  along  the  lines  of 
least  resistance,  so  his  instinct  for  gain 
draws  him  along  lines  where  there  is  the 
least  waste  of  energy.  He  is  the  supreme 
colonizer. 

All  countries  are  his — Siberia,  India,  Bur- 
mah,  Australia,  all  the  Americas,  including 
the  Philippines.  All  the  islands  of  the  seas ; 
he  has  the  largest  colonies  here  and  there 
on  the  earth,  even  larger  than  the  English 
colony,  Buenos  Ayres.  In  the  Malay  Straits 
he  far  outnumbers  the  Malays.  In  Siam 
he  is  nearly  three  million  strong,  one-third 
the  entire  population  of  that  kingdom.  But 
for  the  fact  that  he  could  not  vote  in  Amer- 
ica, and  so  left  the  politicians  to  oppose  him 
in  the  interest  of  those  who  could  vote,  he 
might  have  been  to-day  ten  millions  strong 
39 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

under  our  flag.  It  took  all  the  venom  of 
local  prejudices  and  all  the  power  of  the 
General  Government  to  check  this  silent, 
creeping,  ever-pressing  tide. 

In  his  wide  wanderings  he  is  a  factor 
wherever  he  lives.  He  owns  and  manages 
great  steamship  lines,  banks,  factories, 
mines,  plantations,  mercantile  establish- 
ments, great  corporations  in  the  English  col- 
ony of  Hong  Kong,  in  Japan,  in  Singapore, 
in  India,  in  Burmah,  in  Siam.  He  is  a 
constant  menace  to  the  laborer  in  every  labor 
market  of  the  world. 

The  Chinaman  is  not  a  Soldier. 

You  find  over  China  statues  of  scholars 
and  statesmen  and  philosophers  and  literary 
men,  but  not  often  of  soldiers.  He  has  no 
military  spirit,  yet  he  has  courage  when  he 
is  well  drilled,  commanded,  and  paid.  There 
are  rare  instances  of  heroism.  Some  men 
have  volunteered  as  substitutes  to  be  exe- 
40 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

cuted.  He  believes  in  strategy,  not  arms. 
He  fights  behind  walls,  like  a  cornered  rat ; 
but  before  an  assault  he  runs  like  an  ante- 
lope. This  spirit  has  made  it  possible  to  live 
in  the  same  world  with  him.  When  he  shall 
find  a  good  drill-master  and  an  able  com- 
mander, and  prompt  care  when  wounded, 
and  certain  pay  for  service,  he  will  be  a 
splendid  soldier.  Russia  can  furnish  all 
these  lacking  requisites.  England  sent  a 
drill  sergeant  up  the  Nile  into  the  sands  of 
Egypt  to  the  water-carrying  fellahs,  and 
Europe  and  Asia  were  surprised  to  see  these 
recruits  fight  like  ancient  Greeks.  Any- 
thing the  Egyptians  can  do,  the  Chinaman 
can  do.  What  England  has  done  for  Egypt, 
Russia  can  do  for  China. 

The  greatest  modern  Chinese  statesman, 
Wensiang,  often  said  to  foreign  diplomats : 
"You  are  all  too  anxious  to  wake  us  and 
start  us  on  a  new  road,  and  you  will  do  it ; 
but  you  will  all  regret  it,  for,  once  waking 
4  41 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

and  started,  we  shall  go  fast  and  far,  farther 
than  you  think,  and  much  faster  than  you 
want." 

The  Problem  with  China  is  This, 
Which  Way  is  She  Going? 

In  recent  years  she  has  lost  two-thirds  of 
her  territory,  though  only  one-twelfth  of  her 
population.  Yet  there  remain  fifteen  hun- 
dred thousand  square  miles  of  land,  an  im- 
mense block  of  available  land,  and  350,000,- 
000  of  people.  She  may  change  dynasties, 
she  may  come  under  the  control  of  some  for- 
eign Power;  but  she  will  not  cease  to  be. 
She  will  not  be  wiped  out.  Like  the  king 
in  a  chess  game  she  may  be  checkmated, 
but  she  can  not  be  removed  from  the  board. 
Some  pawn  or  knight,  some  Japanese  or 
Muscovite,  will  cover  her  exposure  and  con- 
tinue the  game.  Her  very  numbers  is  God's 
promise  of  perpetuity.  The  yellow  race  will 
remain  the  menace  of  the  world.  It  lies  on 
42 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  shore  of  Asia,  a  huge  club,  only  waiting 
to  be  picked  up  by  some  Hercules.  China 
is  the  world's  problem  for  the  twentieth 
century.     Who  will  seize  this  club? 

Russia  the  Coming  Power. 

We  are  up  against  an  inexorable  propo- 
sition. As  we  peer  into  the  mists  that  veil 
the  future,  coming  events  cast  their  shad- 
ows toward  us.  There  is  a  huge  figure  ap- 
proaching. It  has  a  fur  cloak  over  its  shoul- 
ders, and  a  club  in  its  hands.  It  may  be  the 
coming  Hercules.  Looking  more  closely 
it  is  a  Bear.  The  Bear  that  walks  like  a 
man.  After  our  experiences  during  the 
Civil  War,  when  the  Czar  sent  his  fleet  to 
New  York  and  San  Francisco  to  defend  us 
against  intervention,  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
fear  the  Bear  or  refuse  him  anything.  Yet 
we  must  recognize  facts.  It  is  a  Bear  stand- 
ing on  the  trail.  His  posture  does  not 
change  his  nature.  If  Russia  appropriates 
43 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

and  assimilates  China,  we  are  face  to  face 
with  the  most  powerful  empire  ever  known 
among  men.  The  world  problem  is  this, 
Shall  Russia  be  allowed  to  absorb  China? 
This  problem  is  full  of  dragon's  teeth,  teeth 
enough  to  seed  down  the  world  with  century- 
long  strifes. 

Russia  is  Already  Very  Great. 

She  has  125,000,000  people,  and  8,670,- 
000  square  miles  of  land.  The  mass  of  her 
people  are  stout  and  solid,  inured  to  hard- 
ship, economical,  able  to  live  as  cheaply  as 
Chinamen.  They  are  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious, zealous  followers  of  the  Czar,  tak- 
ing his  word  as  final  and  almost  divine. 
One  block  of  land,  from  the  Polar  Sea  to 
Persia,  and  from  the  Baltic  to  Korea,  with 
no  intervening  sections  of  hostile  or  even 
neutral  territory, — infantry  could  march 
over  these  wide  zones  without  touching  for- 
eign soil. 

44 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Russia  is  Rendered  Incapable  of  Subju- 
gation by  Her  Geography. 

She  needs  only  to  retreat  into  her  climate 
to  destroy  all  pursuers.  Even  the  genius 
of  Napoleon  could  not  survive  her  neglect 
any  farther  north  than  Moscow.  She  can 
march  against  any  foe  at  her  own  sweet  will. 
If  she  wins  she  can  absorb  the  conquered 
territory  to  pay  the  expenses.  If  she  fails 
she  has  only  to  retreat,  wait,  recuperate, 
and  try  again. 

The  State,  as  distinguished  from  the  coun- 
try, means  the  Czar.  He  is  the  State.  His 
wealth  surpasses  that  of  any  other  man's 
wealth.  Money  is  more  than  ever  before 
the  sinews  of  war.  The  ancient  David 
might  slay  Goliath  and  scatter  the  Philis- 
tines with  a  sling  and  a  smooth  pebble  from 
a  common  brook,  not  worth  more  than  a 
Chinese  cash  1/18  of  a  cent;  but  the  modern 
David  who  would  defend  his  country  or  ex- 
45 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

tend  her  borders  must  have  steel  ships  and 
twenty-four  inch  guns.  It  costs  $800  or 
$1,000  now  to  hurl  one  pebble  from  some 
of  our  modern  slings.  Money  is  the  sinews 
of  war.  It  takes  a  key  of  gold  to  unlock 
the  gate  of  empire.  The  Czar  is  very  rich ; 
has  money  almost  without  limit.  His  un- 
mortgaged resources  approach  $1,000,000,- 
000  a  year,  and  would  maintain  perpetually 
a  war  as  great  as  the  late  English  South 
African  War.  The  debt  of  Russia  is  $3,- 
311,000,000.  Great  as  it  seems,  it  is  less 
than  the  debt  of  England  or  of  France.  He 
has  vast  resources  from  mines  and  coal  and 
timber  lands.  While  all  other  nations,  ex- 
cept some  of  the  South  American  Republic 
wildernesses,  are  hunting  for  and  planting 
and  economizing  their  lumber  supply,  the 
Czar  has  over  300,000,000  acres  of  heavy 
timber.  He  has  income  from  rents  and  rail- 
roads. He  owns  25,000  miles  of  railroads, 
and  some  years  is  adding  to  these  at  the  rate 
46 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

of  2,600  miles  a  year.  He  has  vast  income 
from  the  liquor  trade,  which  he  took  into 
his  own  hands  to  control  its  quality  and  re- 
strict its  sale,  and  save  the  peasants  from 
utter  destruction.  According  to  latest  re- 
ports his  income  from  all  sources  exceeded 
all  the  expenses  of  the  Government  by  $200,- 
000,000.  Out  of  this  he  put  $47,500,000 
into  new  warships,  $21,575,000  into  relief 
for  the  crop  failure,  and  other  millions  he 
poured  into  increasing  the  army.  In  a  time 
of  financial  depression  he  was  not  affected 
in  the  least.  He  pushed  his  great  Siberian 
Railroad  7,600  miles  long,  his  Trans-Cas- 
pian Railroad,  his  railroads  in  Central  Asia, 
in  Southern  Caucasus,  and  his  railroads 
down  to  the  frontier  of  Austria  and  to  the 
frontier  of  Germany,  just  as  if  he  owned 
all  the  mines  and  mints  in  the  world. 

This  great  Siberian  Road,  purely  a  polit- 
ical and  military  enterprise,  is  destined  to 
change  the  map  of  Asia  and  mold  the  des- 
47 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

tiny  of  China.  A  great  Russian  statesman 
has  said,  "We  shall  conquer  China  by  rail- 
roads." Now  running  along  the  border  of 
China  by  the  thousand  miles  this  road  makes 
it  easy  and  inevitable  to  put  Russian  pres- 
sure on  China  at  any  point.  The  Czar  has 
only  to  close  a  little  these  iron  fingers  on  the 
brain  or  on  the  heart  or  on  the  throat  of 
China,  and  his  will  will  be  supreme.  Know- 
ing this,  he  has  pushed  the  Siberian  Road  on 
to  its  objective  point  with  all  the  wisdom 
of  a  capitalist  and  all  the  energy  of  a  con- 
queror. 

He  still  has  had  a  large  surplus  which  he 
applies  to  the  development  of  Russia's 
boundless  resources.  Mr.  Ford  says  in  an 
English  engineering  magazine:  "Mighty 
canals  are  being  cut,  rivers  and  harbors 
deepened,  arid  regions  irrigated,  forests 
cleared  and  waste  lands  reclaimed;  cities, 
villages,  and  workshops  are  being  built,  and 
colonies  are  being  planted  in  new  localities 
48 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

where  modern  systems  of  drainage  and  agri- 
culture are  being  introduced.'* 

These  improvements  are  of  the  highest 
character;  depots,  government  buildings, 
opera-houses,  public  halls,  cathedrals  are  of 
the  most  modern  style,  and  most  permanent 
structures.  The  advances  into  new  regions 
and  toward  possible  conquests  have  all  the 
appearance  of  permanent  occupation. 
These  vast  outlays  are  no  spasmodic  output. 
The  treasury  is  never  exhausted.  The  na- 
tional debt  is  all  the  time  being  regularly 
reduced  fifteen  or  twenty  million  dollars  a 
year.  New  loans  are  floated  only  to  pay  off 
old  bonds  and  carry  the  debt  at  lower  rates. 
Not  a  dollar  of  the  recent  loans  has  gone 
into  the  treasury  or  current  expenses.  Rus- 
sia has  large  deposits  in  English  banks.  In 
recent  years  (A.  D.  1890)  one  of  the  London 
banks  had  to  have  the  support  of  the  Bank 
of  England  to  help  it  over  a  close  place. 
Russia's  deposit  there  was  so  great  that  the 
49 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Bank  of  England  asked  Russia  "not  to  call 
for  her  deposit  till  a  certain  date,  as  it  would 
precipitate  a  financial  crisis  of  the  utmost 
gravity." 

Add  to  all  this  the  fact  that  the 

Vast  Resources  of  the  Empire  are  Only 
Being  Discovered. 

Coal,  iron,  copper,  and  oil  are  produced  by 
the  million  tons,  and  their  resources 
are  barely  scratched.  Life-supporting  prod- 
ucts are  created  by  the  hundred  million 
tons.  Improved  agriculture  is  pushed  upon 
the  farmers.  Industries  are  planted  in  every 
direction.  Public  works  open  new  sources 
of  knowledge  and  support  for  large  numbers 
of  the  peasantry.  The  empire  covering  one- 
eighth  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  about  one- 
tenth  of  the  world's  population,  is  a  vast 
workshop.  Russia  is  a  beehive.  The  spirit 
of  the  great  Romanoff  family,  the  greatest 
family  that  ever  sat  on  a  human  throne,  in- 
50 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

spires  all  ranks  of  the  people  and  of  the 
army.  They  believe  implicitly  in  the  Czar. 
Tell  them  that  such  or  such  is  the  wish  or 
will  of  the  Czar,  and  they  are  quick  to  do  it. 
Ask  a  Russian  anywhere  what  is  the  mis- 
sion of  Russia,  and  he  will  say,  "To  save 
the  world."  Ask  a  Russian  officer  where 
Russia  is  going,  and  he  will  point  to  China. 
Their  faces  are  set  to  the  southeast.  It  is 
ingrained  into  the  Russian  conviction  that 
they  are  destined  to  reach  the  warm  sea. 
It  is  amazing  to  think  of  the  vastness  of  the 
Czar's  power.  All  the  energies  of  that  em- 
pire centralize  in  him.  The  strength  and 
momentum  of  two  continents  are  com- 
pressed into  him.     He  is  the  world's  fist. 

With  such  a  Power  rising  in  Europe  and 
Asia,  nothing  is  impossible  to  it. 

What  Does  the  Czar  Want? 

That  is  the  vital  question.     He  must  be 
judged  by  his  history  and  his  environment. 
5i 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

His  natural  and  national  instinct  has  been 
forward  to  open  winter  harbors,  to  the  warm 
sea.  He  has  desired  the  warm  sea  with  a 
greed  many  centuries  old.  This  drift  is  a 
world  movement.  It  depends  neither  upon 
individual  men  nor  upon  particular  ages. 
It  is  not  dependent  upon  any  great  military 
genius.  It  requires  only  an  average  ruler, 
open  to  the  instincts  of  his  people. 

Opposition  may  retard  this  movement, 
but  it  can  not  defeat  it.  It  is  a  tide  lifted 
by  the  stars.  It  is  a  gulf-stream  sweeping 
onward  by  the  century,  unaffected  by  State 
funerals  or  the  flight  of  time.  It  is  silent, 
concentrated,  perpetual.  As  the  Muir  gla- 
cier comes  out  of  the  Alaskan  gorge  from 
a  number  of  concentrated,  converged  gorges, 
spurting  and  pushing  each  other  forward 
till  the  advance  along  the  main  axis  of  move- 
ment is  often  visible  to  the  careful  observer, 
so  this  Russian  political  glacier  comes  out 
of  all  the  converging  convictions  of  the  em- 
52 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

pire,  pushes  straight  on  by  a  resistless  grind 
toward  the  warm  sea,  and  it  must  succeed. 
It  is  a  world  grind,  and  only  God  can  stop 
it.  Russia  will  ultimately  reach  warm  water, 
but  she  must  not  absorb  China. 

Can  China  resist  Russia?  Let  the  drift 
of  recent  years  answer.  China  has  recently 
lost  Siam,  Burmah,  Annam,  Tibet,  and 
Mongolia,  Tong  King,  Formosa,  Man- 
churia, and  Korea.  These  are  China's  tracks, 
toes  in  toward  Peking,  away  from  the  nar- 
rowing frontier.  It  is  not  thinkable  that 
she  should  now  arise  and  reverse  her  direc- 
tion and  her  history  in  a  struggle  against 
her  overshadowing  master.  Russia's  ad- 
vances are  as  marked  as  China's  losses. 
Russia  has  transformed  the  map  of  Asia 
into  a  series  of  Russian  plateaus,  marking 
the  mighty  strides  of  Russia's  progress. 
Look  at  them :  The  Urals,  Western  Siberia, 
Eastern  Siberia,  Baikalia,  Kamschatka,  the 
Amur,  Manchuria,  the  Steppe,  Khiva,  Tur- 
53 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

kestan,  the  Merr  Oasis,  Bokhara,  Samar- 
kand,— these  are  Russia's  footprints,  heels 
toward  St.  Petersburg,  toes  toward  the  ex- 
tending frontier,  marking  her  strides  over 
Asia.  Meantime  her  naval  base  drifts  south, 
tack  by  tack,  Petropaulafsk,  Nikolasefsk, 
Vladivostock,  Port  Arthur. 

With  Her  to  Wiix  is  to  Achieve. 

She  moves  as  if  she  had  only  to  pick  out 
of  everything  whatever  she  wants.  Is  it 
Siberia?  She  takes  it.  Is  it  Central  Asia? 
She  takes  it.  Is  it  Port  Arthur  ?  She  takes 
it.  Is  it  Manchuria?  She  takes  it.  Is  it 
Persia  ?  She  runs  her  railroads  to  the  Per- 
sian Gulf  and  takes  the  Persian  commerce, 
knowing  that  where  Persia's  heart  is  there 
will  she  be  also.  Does  she  want  Mongolia  ? 
She  has  only  to  say  the  word.  The  iron  net 
is  fully  spread.  Does  she  want  Tibet  ?  She 
already  has  her  hand  stretched  under  the 
limb  to  catch  it  when  she  wishes  to  jar  the 
54 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

tree.  Hei  railroad  runs  7,600  miles  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Yellow  Sea,  and  a 
branch  is  already  creeping  up  to  the  Great 
Wall  almost  within  cannon  shot  of  Peking. 
With  her  railroad  stations  skirting  the  Chi- 
nese border  for  3,000  miles,  and  thickly  set 
with  forts,  and  with  her  navy  nosing  out  to 
the  Yellow  Sea,  she  becomes  the  only  friend 
of  China  whose  advice  must  be  taken. 

The  northern  half  of  China,  all  north 
of  the  Yellow  River  and  possibly  down  to 
the  Yang-tse,  becomes  her  vassal.  Her  rail- 
roads will  not  only  thread  Manchuria,  but 
all  North  China.  The  commerce  of  that 
great  empire  will  become  exclusively  Rus- 
sian. Differential  rates  on  her  railroads  will 
neutralize  the  "most  favored  nation"  clause 
of  the  treaties.  Without  firing  a  single  shot, 
or  taking  a  single  step  worthy  of  interna- 
tional consideration,  with  only  the  pressure 
Russia  knows  so  well  how  to  exercise,  China 
seems  certain  to  be  brought,  and  is  being 
55 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

brought,  under  the  absolute  control  of  Rus- 
sia. With  a  navy,  now  only  second  in  rank 
and  rapidly  increasing,  much  larger  than 
ours,  a  navy  such  as  Russia  can  easily  put 
upon  the  Yellow  Sea  and  on  the  Pacific,  and 
with  vast  armies  within  easy  reach,  there 
will  be  no  Power  able  to  dispute  her  ad- 
vance or  countermand  her  orders. 

China   Naturai^y   Gravitates  Toward 
Russia. 

Russia  is  largely  Asiatic,  all  Asiatic  ex- 
cept a  little  European  light  let  in  through 
St.  Petersburg,  the  window  which  Peter  the 
Great  opened  into  Europe.  Russia  is 
Asiatic.  Napoleon  said,  "Scratch  a  Russian, 
and  you  have  a  Tartar."  She  has  the 
Asiatic  ability  to  smile  and  lie  and  wait. 
She  has  no  value  on  time.  She  hates  haste. 
She  has  the  soft,  complacent,  smiling, 
treacherous  face  of  all  Asiatics.  She  un- 
derstands and  suits  China.  She  yields  and 
56 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

presses,  and  waits  and  holds  on.  She  is  only 
another  arm  of  the  same  octopus.  So  China, 
repelled  by  and  hating  the  Saxon  straight- 
forward integrity  and  haste,  naturally  sinks 
back  into  the  embrace  of  Russia.  Her  four 
hundred  millions,  drilled  and  paid  and  com- 
manded by  Russian  officers,  can  furnish 
armies  without  number,  and  inferior  to 
none. 

Russia  has  supreme  organizing  and  ab- 
sorbing power ;  a  hundred  nations  and  tribes 
have  been  dissolved  in  this  sea,  and  never 
one  has  ever  been  precipitated.  The  vast 
industrial  possibilities  of  China,  reached  by 
steam  and  electricity  over  waterways  and 
railways,  projected  and  owned  and  managed 
by  Russians,  will  make  her  as  dangerous  in 
the  labor  markets  of  the  world  as  on  the 
battlefields.  Russia  does  not  want  a  military 
conquest  if  she  can  avoid  it.  She  will  avoid 
all  beyond  the  near  presence  of  her  armies 
and  threats.  She  wants  China  for  the  sake 
5  57 


Missions  and  Wored  Movements, 

of  her  incipient,  and  possibly  boundless, 
commerce.  She  wants  control  of  those  mar- 
kets now  ready  for  use,  as  soon  as  she  can 
reach  those  thronging  millions  with  proper 
communication  and  transportation.  It  is  not 
Siberia  for  her  own  sake  she  wants,  where 
she  has  to  plant  colonies  and  slowly  create 
trade;  she  wants  Siberia  for  what  lies  be- 
yond. It  is  China,  where  the  population 
has  been  waiting  by  the  thousand  years  for 
the  development  of  commerce. 

Russia  Wants  this  Empire:  to  Use  as  a 
Weapon  against  India 

and  against  the  rest  of  Asia,  and  against 
Europe.  In  Russia's  hand  China  will  be  a 
deadly  weapon,  and  make  Russia  the  great- 
est empire,  ancient  or  modern. 

Establish  the  Czar's  authority  in  Peking, 

with  a  continuous  frontier  along  India,  from 

the  Upper  Oxus  to  the  Yang-tse  basin  on 

much  of  three  sides  of  that  populous  em- 

58 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

pire,  with  a  home  fleet  on  the  Pacific  su- 
perior to  the  English  fleets  projected  into 
those  waters,  making  the  transport  of  Eng- 
lish armies  impossible,  with  five  hundred 
millions  of  people  whose  flesh  and  blood  are 
cheap  obeying  his  orders,  able  to  drop 
armies  into  India  without  number,  unex- 
posed on  transports,  then  the  absorption  of 
India  will  be  only  a  matter  of  willing.  The 
Russian  Empire,  then  extending  from  the 
Polar  Sea  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  from 
Germany  to  the  Yellow  Sea,  covering  Asia 
and  much  of  Europe,  and  controlling  half 
the  human  race,  will  put  Europe  in  greater 
peril  than  it  ever  was  in  the  days  of  the 
Mongol  Empire  in  the  palmy  days  of  Jen- 
ghiz  Khan,  or  Timurlane,  Russia  is  already 
running  her  railroads  down  to  the  border  of 
Austria,  waiting  till  the  Slav  and  German 
elements  of  Austria  shall  assert  themselves 
upon  the  near  death  of  Franz  Joseph,  the 
present  emperor.  Then  the  Czar  will  be 
59 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

ready  to  bargain  with  Germany  and  take 
his  Slavs  in  out  of  anarchy,  while  William 
III  hovers  his  Germans.  It  looks  as  if  the 
old  Bonaparte  had  the  vision  of  a  prophet, 
when  on  St.  Helena  he  said,  "In  a  century 
Europe  will  be  all  Republican  or  Slav,"  and 
again  he  said,  "If  a  Czar,  brave,  hardy, 
gifted  with  warlike  qualities,  mount  the 
Russian  throne,  he  will  be  able  to  conquer 
all  Europe." 

This  is  not  a  dream.  The  Czar,  as  ruler 
of  Asia,  can  do  much  toward  transforming 
the  Pacific  Ocean  into  a  Russian  harbor  or 
highway.  In  peace,  by  high  duties  and  dif- 
ferential rates  over  her  railroads,  he  can 
close  all  the  vast  markets  of  Asia  against 
all  non-Russian  products,  as  he  is  doing 
to-day  wherever  his  double-headed  eagles 
float.  He  stops  at  no  half-way  measures. 
He  seeks  the  accomplishment  of  his  own  will 
with  the  celerity  of  ambition,  and  with  the 

merciless  thoroughness  of  fanaticism.    The 
60 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Czar  is  accumulating  and  marshaling  mighty 
forces,  and  is  confident  that  he  can  absorb 
China,  and  later  India  and  the  rest  of  Asia. 
He  will  reach  the  warm  Pacific.  But  he 
must  not  absorb  China.  The  Powers  must 
resist  him,  and  set  limits  and  bounds  to  his 
ambition  and  to  his  empire. 

The  Lines  are  Being  Drawn 

By  an  invisible  and  Almighty  Hand.  The 
Great  Powers  are  silently  wheeling  into 
place.  Sooner  or  later  the  contest  will  be 
joined.  Let  us  catalogue  the  forces  on  each 
side.  On  one  side  is  Russia,  ambitious, 
seeking  more  territory,  not  for  a  crowded 
population,  for  she  already  has  much  room 
to  spare,  but  for  strategical  positions  for 
future  political  and  military  conquests. 
Rich  beyond  computation,  compact  in  terri- 
tory, one  immense  block,  buttressed  on  the 
north  by  the  Arctic  Ocean,  cushioned  on  the 
south  by  soft  peoples,  stretching  across  two 
61 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

continents,  with  little  east  of  her  to  resist, 
and  everything  to  allure  her,  even  on  to  the 
Pacific,  and  confronted  on  the  west  only 
by  Germany.  With  125,000,000  of  devoted, 
warlike  subjects,  fanatically  certain  that 
Russia  is  ordained  of  God  to  conquer  both 
Asia  and  Europe  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world,  with  a  greed  for  conquest  fermented 
in  the  blood  for  many  centuries,  and  with  an 
experience  of  successful  absorptions  wide 
enough  to  turn  the  head  of  the  Sphinx,  with 
all  this  power  concentrated  in  one  unques- 
tioned will,  can  there  be  any  doubt  as  to 
which  way  Russia  will  move?  On  the  side 
of  Russia  will  be  found  her  ally,  France, 
the  Don  Quixote  of  the  nations,  though 
within  a  few  days  France  seems  to  be  mak- 
ing friends  with  England.  Turkey  must 
yield  to  the  old-time  greed  of  Russia.  So 
much  of  Austria  as  is  of  Slav  origin  will 
join  the  Slavs.  The  rest  of  Europe  will  not 
add  much  to  these  forces.  Italy  is  only  a 
62 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

name  on  the  map.  Spain  is  a  relic.  These 
baptized  and  unbaptized  heathen  will  soon 
be  able  to  rally  half  the  human  race  to  one 
standard. 

Against  these  vast  hosts  may  possibly  be 
gathered  the  Saxon  and  Protestant  nations. 

Germany, 

That  old  birthplace  and  cradle  of  Protest- 
ism  ;  that  camp  in  the  heart  of  Europe ;  that 
race  of  soldiers;  that  land  of  colleges  and 
scholars,  and  statesmen,  and  fighters;  that 
nation  that  sung  its  way  from  Berlin  to 
Paris,  trampling  down  all  opposing-  armies 
as  if  they  were  only  knocking  off  the  heads 
of  toadstools;  that  bulwark  of  Europe 
against  Russia  will  give  sympathy,  and  pos- 
sibly aid.  Since  the  fall  of  Bismarck,  who 
always  courted  Russia  at  the  expense  of 
England,  it  looks  as  if  William  III  has  come 
to  his  senses  and  realizes  the  danger  of  the 
presence  of  so  great  and  ambitious  a  neigh- 
63 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

bor  as  Russia,  as  if  the  faith  of  his  fathers 
was  asserting  itself  in  his  convictions,  as  if 
the  blood  of  his  mother  and  grandmother, 
God's  most  elect  lady,  Victoria,  was  work- 
ing in  his  veins,  and  that  he  is  turning  the 
prow  of  his  Ship  of  State  toward  the  Eng- 
lish Channel.  When  Napoleon  was  in  Ber- 
lin he  visited  the  resting-place  of  Frederick 
the  Great.  He  picked  up  Frederick's  sword 
that  was  lying  on  his  coffin,  and  carried  it 
away  with  him.  When  Unser  Fritz  went 
into  Paris  with  Moltke  at  his  back,  and  met 
the  French  commissioners  suing  for  peace, 
the  first  thing  he  said  was,  "We  have  come 
after  Frederick's  sword."  That  sword, 
dropped  into  the  scales  in  this  strife,  may 
tell  which  way  the  beam  of  Fate  will  sink. 
Let  us  hope  that  Germany  will  be  true  to 
her  history  and  her  instincts. 

It  is  fairly  safe  to  expect  sympathy  and 
comfort  from 


64 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Scandinavia. 
Those  sons  of  the  Vikings  and  of  the  old 
pirate  chiefs,  those  sons  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  who  single-handed 
against  all  Catholic  Europe  for  a  whole  gen- 
eration defended  and  saved  Protestantism 
and  Liberty ;  these  Scandinavians  who  stood 
off  and  so  defeated  Peter  the  Great,  that 
after  one  of  his  defeats  he  had  the  Te  Deum 
sung  in  the  churches,  saying:  "The  time 
has  at  last  come  when  three  Russians  can 
stand  against  one  Swede.  The  time  will 
come  when  we  can  stand  two  against  one ;" 
these  Scandinavians  who  have  a  larger  per 
cent  of  people  able  to  read  and  write  than 
any  other  nation  anywhere,  who,  living  by 
their  fjords  and  mountain  streams,  sing 
the  glad  songs  of  liberty  and  are  as  free  as 
any  people  have  ever  been  in  any  land  or 
age;  these  Scandinavians  will  be  true  to 
their  history,  to  their  faith,  and  to  their  God. 
They  will  be  found  on  the  right  side, 
65 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

It  may  not  be  too  much  to  rely  on  help 
from 

Holland, 

That  pioneer  of  religious  liberty.  Holland 
was  the  advance  guard  of  Freedom  for  two 
hundred  years.  She  was  the  discoverer  of 
nearly  every  great  truth  out  of  which  re- 
publics are  made.  She  discovered,  polit- 
ically the  individual  man,  freedom  of  con- 
science, free  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  free 
press,  free  libraries,  free  judges,  secret  bal- 
lot, written  constitutional  limitations  for  the 
ruler,  full  subpoenas  for  the  witnesses  of 
the  accused,  and  counsel  for  his  defense. 
Holland  endured  the  tortures  of  the  Duke 
of  Alva  without  flinching,  and  resisted  the 
combined  forces  of  the  Bourbon  family 
through  the  long  Eighty  Years'  War.  She 
can  never  be  wanting  when  she  is  needed. 


66 


Missions  and  Wori<d  Movements. 

Japan, 

Suddenly  rising  into  importance,  long  a  na- 
tion of  sailors  and  fighters,  now  in  covenant 
with  England,  may  be  counted  against  her 
great  and  ancient  enemy,  Russia.  Her  fleets 
and  her  armies,  her  commerce  and  her  in- 
dustries, her  valor  and  her  new  life,  her 
geographical  position  and  her  ambitions, 
make  her  a  great  factor  in  the  problems  of 
the  immediate  future.  She  so  regards  her- 
self and  her  mission.  Her  genius  for  peace- 
ful achievements  is  shown  in  her  mounting 
so  quickly  to  the  second  place  in  the  com- 
merce with  China,  and  in  the  rapidity  with 
which  she  assumes  control  of  her  own  new 
industries.  Most  of  her  railroads,  started 
and  handled  by  foreigners,  are  now  exclu- 
sively Japanese;  not  one  foreigner  is  re- 
tained with  them.  Her  ancient  war  power 
has  survived  the  exchange  of  the  cross-bow 
for  the  steel  cruiser.  This  is  demonstrated 
67 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

by  the  ease  with  which  she  destroyed  the 
naval  power  of  China.  It  is  not  strange 
that  she  should  now  regard  herself  as  one 
of  the  great  Powers,  almost  the  great  Power. 
Count  Okuma,  ex-minister  for  foreign  af- 
fairs, not  long  ago  said  in  a  set  speech: 
"The  European  Powers  are  already  showing 
symptoms  of  decay,  and  the  next  century 
will  see  their  constitutions  shattered  and 
their  empires  in  ruins.  .  .  .  Who  is  fit  to 
be  their  proper  successors  if  not  ourselves. 
.  .  .  The  Japanese  mind  is  in  every  way 
equal  to  the  European  mind.  .  .  .  We  are 
become  one  of  the  chief  Powers  of  the 
world,  and  no  Power  can  engage  in  any 
movement  without  first  consulting  us. 
Japan  can  enter  into  competition  with  Eu- 
rope as  the  representative  of  the  Oriental 
races." 
In  the  impending  struggle 


68 


OVTissions  and  World  Movements. 

England 

Stands  as  the  bulwark  of  Liberty,  and  the 
defender  of  Christianity,  and  the  strength 
of  Protestantism.     Her  blood,  her  history, 
her  faith,  her  Divine  commission,  her  com- 
merce, and  her  high  leadership,  and  almost 
her  existence  compel  her  to  meet  this  crisis 
before  it  becomes  a  destiny.     England  is 
born  of  all  the  great  Northern  races.    Her 
island  has  been  a  fort  for  the  control  of  the 
Continent.  All  the  pirates  from  the  high  seas, 
and  all  the  freebooters  from  the  main  land, 
all  the  ambitious  chiefs  and  all  the  most 
fearless  adventurers,   patriots   panting   for 
freedom,  and  saints  praying  for  ease  of  con- 
science, warriors  and  martyrs  marching  in  the 
picket-line  of  the  advance  guard  of  human 
progress,  generation  after  generation,  age 
after  age,  for  many  centuries,  have  crowded 
into  this  island  fortress,  and  have  contended 
for  a  footing  and  a  future.    In  the  death- 
69 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

grapple  with  fagot  and  sword  they  have 
staggered  from  shore  to  shore,  baptizing 
every  blade  of  grass  with  the  blood  of  their 
martyrs,  and  paving  every  square  yard  of 
their  island  with  the  bodies  of  their  heroes. 
They  have  mingled  their  blood  in  their 
streams  and  in  their  veins,  and  out  of  all 
this  strife  and  agony  has  come  the  most 
virile  race  known  to  history. 

England  To-day  is  a  Bank  and  an  Ex- 
change. 

She  calculates  in  marble  counting-rooms 
and  lives  in  golden  palaces.  She  does  not 
produce  so  much  as  she  causes  others  to 
produce  and  then  divide.  She  stretches  her 
arms  over  all  seas  and  into  all  continents. 
She  sends  her  sons  into  all  the  mines  and 
forests  and  harvests  of  many  lands,  and 
they  come  back  with  much  of  the  world's 
wealth.  She  lives  and  labors  at  arm's- 
length.  To  be  anything  she  must  keep 
70 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

open  her  markets  and  keep  up  her  lines  of 
transportation.  The  heart  of  her  wealth 
beats  inside  her  narrow  shores,  but  she  must 
keep  her  arteries  and  veins,  that  net  the 
world,  in  safety  and  health.  Let  these  clog, 
and  heart-failure  will  end  her  career. 

Her  Indian  Empire  fills  many  of  her  cof- 
fers and  feeds  many  of  her  millions.  With- 
out it  she  might  still  exist,  but  she  would 
miss  many  of  her  luxuries  and  lose  much  of 
her  prestige.  There  have  been  three  great 
queens  of  the  sea— Tyre,  and  Venice,  and 
England.  Tyre  is  only  a  tradition ;  Venice 
is  a  remnant;  England,  stripped  of  India, 
might  be  pushed  from  her  place  of  power. 
She  is  forced  by  her  commerce,  and  almost 
for  her  very  existence,  to  stand  at  all  hazards 
against  the  shadow  of  the  returning  Mongol 
Empire.    She  can  not  allow  Russia  to  rule 

Asia. 

England's  faith  is  her  soul.    This  is  the 
power  that  gave  her  her  leadership  and  her 
7i 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

destiny.  She  stands  for  all  that  is  dear  in 
freedom  and  all  that  is  sacred  in  religion. 
Her  Westminster  Abbey  gives  her  the 
stately  pageant  of  her  history  and  the  pride 
of  her  great  families.  But  her  Smithfield, 
where  her  martyrs,  for  the  sake  of  the 
truth,  defied  the  stake  and  the  fagot,  is 
the  center  of  her  power  and  of  her  glory. 
The  ashes  from  that  sacred  spot  have  been 
carried  by  the  waves  and  by  the  winds  to 
all  shores  and  over  all  lands,  where  they 
have  sprung  up  in  free  institutions  and  pros- 
perous peace.  Nearly  all  her  great  families 
know  what  Protestantism  cost  and  what 
made  Smithfield  resistless.  While  the  mem- 
ories of  these  historic  sacrifices  touch  a 
chord  in  the  hearts  of  freemen,  and  England 
stands  for  the  open  Bible,  she  can  never  in- 
nocently or  safely  hand  over  Asia  to  bap- 
tized and  unbaptized  heathenism.  Wher- 
ever the  power  of  Russia  reaches,  there  mis- 
sion work  in  the  past  has  been  perilous,  and 
72 


Missions  and  Wored  Movements. 

almost  impossible.  But  wherever  the  Union 
Jack  is  unfurled,  there  the  Bible  is  wide 
open  and  religious  teaching  is  protected  and 
safe.  If  England  surrenders  Asia  to  Rus- 
sia she  gives  a  new  lease  of  life  to  heathen- 
ism, and  postpones  the  triumph  of  the  Cross 
for  from  two  to  ten  centuries.  She  sur- 
renders her  scepter,  and  passes  into  obscur- 
ity uncrowned  and  unhonored.  We  still 
hope  that  England  can  never  retreat.  Like 
the  Old  Guard  at  Waterloo,  England  can  die, 
but  she  can  never  surrender.  She  fought 
France  for  three  hundred  years  with  vary- 
ing fortunes  but  they  gave  her  Marlbor- 
ough and  Nelson  and  Wellington,  and  cre- 
ated her  empire.  Surely  she  can  afford  to 
fight  Russia  twice  that  time,  if  necessary, 
to  maintain  her  supremacy  and  perpetuate 
her  empire. 

There  is  Another  Factor  in  this 
Problem. 

This    argument,    like    John's    locusts    and 
6  73 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

scorpions  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  has  its 
sting  in  its  tail.    That  other  factor  is  the 

United  States, 

Our  ambitious,  aggressive,  confident,  power- 
ful, dear  sweet  selves.  Nearly  every  inter- 
est we  have  is  involved  in  the  solution  of 
this  Chinese  question.  We  are  drifting  in 
this  political  gulf-stream.  We  are  an 
Asiatic  Power.  Russia  ruling  Asia  may 
transform  the  Pacific  into  a  Russian  harbor, 
or  highway,  a  roadstead  across  which  Saxon 
and  Slav  will  struggle.  In  peace  the  Czar 
can  close  half  the  markets  of  the  world 
against  us,  and  we  shall  find  the  cheap  labor 
of  all  the  world  competing  in  our  markets. 
Our  labor  will  be  depressed  as  never  before. 
A  small  per  cent  of  our  possible  appliances 
can  glut  all  the  markets  then  left  open  to 
us.  In  war  the  Czar  will  be  a  colossal  peril 
to  every  nation  having  a  Pacific  exposure. 
This  is  not  a  dream.  It  is  a  situation,  al- 
74 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

ready  within  the  field  of  vision.  Napoleon 
saw  it  a  century  ago ;  Lord  Palmerston  saw 
it  half  a  century  ago;  we  ought  to  be  able 
to  see  it  now.  It  does  not  menace  us  be- 
cause we  have  a  Pacific  Archipelago  in  Far 
Eastern  waters.  It  menaces  us  because  we 
have  a  Pacific  frontage.  When  we  bought 
the  Northwest  Territories  from  Napoleon, 
and  shoved  the  prows  of  our  commerce 
into  the  Pacific,  we  gave  hostages  to  Asia. 
With  our  inheritance  comes  our  new  peril. 
As  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Administration  his  voice  was  strong  enough 
to  revolutionize  the  policy  of  Japan.  An 
ancient  edict  against  Christianity  ordered 
the  suppression  of  the  "evil  sect."  The 
revolutions  in  the  sixties  encouraged  native 
Christians  to  confess  their  faith.  The 
Mikado  ordered  their  extirpation.  Mr. 
Lincoln  sent  word  to  the  Mikado  that  his 
edict  was  offensive  to  the  United  States; 
.  .  .  that  it  conflicted  with  the  Treaty  of 
75 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

1858;  that  it  conflicted  with  toleration 
in  the  civilized  world;  and  that  "the 

United  States  can  not  Acquiesce  in  or 
Submit  to  the  Mikado's  Proc- 
lamation." 

The  minister  was  instructed  to  "proceed 
with  firmness  and  without  practicing  injuri- 
ous hesitation,  or  accepting  any  abasing 
compromises."  Japan  accepted  the  doc- 
trines and  stopped  the  persecution.  We  are 
an  Asiatic  Power. 

The  diplomacy  of  President  McKinley  in 
Peking  concerning  the  Boxer  troubles  was 
the  determining  element  in  the  adjustment. 
The  three  points  urged  by  McKinley  were : 
First,  that  it  was  not  a  war,  but  a  riot,  and 
therefore  retaining  the  Chinese  minister  he 
thus  kept  fifteen  of  the  eighteen  Provinces 
out  of  the  strife.  Second,  that  the  integrity 
of  China  must  be  maintained,  thus  preserv- 
ing the  "Open  Door ;"  and  Third,  that  dam- 
76 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

ages  should  be  settled  by  a  lump  sum,  thus 
preventing  the  seizure  of  territory  by  any 
individual  Power.  The  Powers  came  finally 
to  these  contentions.  The  United  States  sat 
at  the  head  of  the  table  in  fixing  the  affairs 
of  Asia.    We  are  an  Asiatic  Power. 

We  have  more  at  stake  than  any  other 
nation.  The  Isthmian  Canal  will  bring  all 
our  cities  into  close  trade  relations  with 
Asia.  The  vast  multitude  of  Asia  must 
come  our  way,  either  to  trade  with  us  or 
with  Europe.  What  a  future  rises  before 
us!  The  great  cities  of  the  Atlantic  Coast 
from  Portland  to  New  Orleans  have  all  been 
built  by  the  commerce  from  little  Europe. 
What,  then,  shall  we  say  of  the  cities  to  be 
built  on  our  Pacific  Coast?  Ten  times  the 
people,  soon  to  be  Christian  and  civilized, 
with  the  wants  of  civilization,  will  soon 
change  the  face  of  the  continent.  To-day 
we  face  Europe.  To-morrow  we  shall  face 
Asia.  To-day  San  Francisco's  harbor  is  our 
77 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

back  door.  To-morrow  the  Golden  Gate  will 
be  our  front  door,  and  Europe  will  be  be- 
hind us.  Much  of  the  largest  part  of  our 
wealth  will  soon  be  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Our  great  cities  and  forts  will  be  on  the 
Pacific.  A  thousand  million  people  crowd- 
ing in  will  tramp  the  highways  into  pave- 
ments. By  the  side  of  their  trails  vast  cities 
must  spring  up.  Cheap  power  will  soon  lift 
and  carry  and  distribute  the  waters  of  the 
great  mountain  regions  till  all  those  deserts 
shall  blossom  like  gardens.  The  most  desir- 
able climate,  the  richest  and  deepest  soil, 
the  accumulated  nutrition  of  ages  heaped 
upon  those  sage-brush  plains,  easily  irri- 
gated there  will  be  found  a  thousand  million 
people  crowding  these  plains  like  the  old 
valley  of  the  Nile.  What  a  city  San  Fran- 
cisco must  be !  With  no  port  near  her,  with 
a  coast-range  preventing  any  other  natural 
entrance  for  hundreds  of  miles,  with  those 
long  granite  arms  reaching  up  and  down 
78 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  coast  to  gather  into  that  most  capacious 
harbor  the  countless  ships  freighted  from 
populous  Asia,' — with  all  these  helps  and 
stimulants  the  world's  greatest  metropolis 
will  be  built  by  the  Golden  Gate.  We  have 
more  interests  exposed  to  the  Pacific  storms 
than  any  other  nation.  We  ought  not  to  sit 
idly  by  while  our  destiny,  like  the  Savior's 
seamless  garment,  is  being  gambled  for 
before  our  very  eyes. 

Sooner  or  Later  We  Shau,  Confront 
Russia. 

The  strife  of  all  time  will  be  to  decide 
whether  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific,  which 
wifl  be  the  bulk  of  the  world's  commerce, 
which  will  mean  the  dominating  power  of 
the  world,  shall  be  Russian  or  American, 
whether  the  Pacific  with  its  interests  shall 
be  Slav  or  Saxon,  shall  be  for  absolutism  or 
liberty. 

Almost  in  spite  of  ourselves,  certainly  by 
79 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

no  planning  of  our  own,  we  are  being  put 
in  shape  for  this  struggle.  Our  decks  are 
being  cleared  for  action. 

Hawaii, 

The  one  only  and  supreme  strategical  point 
in  all  the  wide  Pacific  for  the  defense  of  our 
coast,  has  come  to  us  at  the  right  time.  It 
is  the  only  point  where  a  hostile  coaling 
station  would  be  dangerous  to  us.  From 
Alaska  to  the  Isthmus,  from  America  to 
Japan,  this  is  the  only  spot  where  coal  and 
water  could  be  obtained.  Four  times  it  has 
been  held  by  foreign  Powers.  Once  we  re- 
jected it  when  offered  to  us.  Some  Power 
wiser  than  our  statesmen  wanted  us  to  have 
it,  so  it  floated  back  to  us  with  its  Pearl 
Harbor.  Now  we  want  it.  Never  again 
will  it  be  tumbled  about  the  public  market. 
On  the  other  side  we  have  the 

Philippines, 

Stretched  along  the  coast  of  Asia.    They  are 
80 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  very  doorkeepers  of  Asia.  A  hand 
reaching  out  from  Manila  can  put  a  ringer 
or  thumb  on  the  principal  ports  of  China, 
Japan,  Korea,  Siam,  and  Annam.  If  the 
nails  on  those  fingers  are  battleships  they 
can  easily  throttle  those  thoroughfares  of 
commerce.  We  did  not  want  the  Philip- 
pines ;  but  now  nobody  else  can  have  them. 
When  Dewey  took  Manila  a  great  Chinaman 
said,  "  This  is  the  salvation  of  China ;  she 
will  not  be  parti tioned." 

Russia  sold  us  eighteen  thousand  miles 
of  North  American  coast  line.  We  did  not 
want  it ;  but  now  we  mean  to  keep  it.  No 
double-headed  eagle  must  ever  again  light 
on  this  continent.  France  sold  us  another 
stretch  of  Pacific  Coast  for  fifteen  million 
dollars,  and  now  there  is  not  enough  money 
in  France  to  buy  it  back,  nor  Frenchmen 
enough  in  the  world  to  take  it  from  us.  We 
are  being  prepared  for  the  coming  strife. 

Pur  decks  are  being  cleared. 
81 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

The  struggle  is  between  the  Far  East  and 
the  Far  West.  It  is  a  grapple  of  civiliza- 
tions. Let  us  hope  that  all  Protestant  na- 
tions and  Japan — just  protesting  against 
nearly  everything — will  stand  together,  and 
present  such  a  solid  front  that  Russia,  even 
though  hoping  to  rule  all  Asia,  may  hesitate 
to  disturb  the  peace,  and  be  compelled  to 
resort  to  her  lifelong  policy  of  delay  and 
diplomacy  and  pressure,  and  thus  make 
room  for  better  agencies  than  the  sword, 
and  time  for  better  principles  to  obtain  the 
mastery.  Sooner  or  later  Russia  will  reach 
the  warm  sea;  but  she  must  not  have  all 
Asia.  She  must  be  checked  and  held  where 
she  is  by  the  Powers  till  China  is  Christian- 
ized in  principles  and  civilized  in  fact.  The 
great  Protestant  nations  may  use  diplomacy 
to  gain  time.  The  last  forty  years  civilized 
Japan  and  prepared  her  to  join  England 
on  the  side  of  freedom  in  the  combinations 

against  Russia.     Seventy-five  years  more 
82 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

may  so  transform  China  as  to  make  her  an 
ally  instead  of  an  enemy.  Sir  Robert  Hart 
regards  "China  as  a  menace  to  the  civilized 
world,"  and  suggests  only  two  remedies. 
First,  the  partition  of  the  empire  among  the 
Powers,  a  course  embarrassed  by  many  diffi- 
culties. Second,  the  miraculous  spread  of 
Christianity,  a  not  impossible  but  scarcely  to 
be  hoped  for  religious  triumph,  which  would 
convert  China  into  the  friendliest  of  friendly 
Powers."  We  are  confronting  a  crisis. 
Once  in  the  rapids,  the  current  is  swift  and 
the  cataract  is  near  and  inevitable.  When 
a  falling  man  has  slid  from  a  high  roof  we 
say,  "He  is  a  dead  man !"  though  he  has  not 
struck  the  pavement.  The  forces  are  liber- 
ated that  will  kill  him. 

With  Russia  actually  occupying  Man- 
churia and  fortifying  Vladivostock  and  Port 
Arthur,  with  her  Siberian  railroad  finished 
to  warm  water,  the  crisis  is  actually  upon 
us.  There  is  no  time  to  waste.  Our  Isth- 
83 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

mian  Canal  should  be  pushed  as  Russia  has 
pushed  her  railroads.  Our  navy,  now  third 
in  rank,  must  be  brought  up  speedily  to  the 
first  rank,  and  we  must  hold  ourselves  ready 
to  master  and  hold  the  Pacific.  Saxon  and 
Slav  are  running  to  get  in.  The  Pacific  is 
the  fort.  Whoever  gets  in  masters  the 
world  and  stamps  the  world.  It  must  be 
free,  or  despotic  for  centuries. 

If  the  storm  breaks  upon  the  world  too 
suddenly,  and  all  the  other  Powers  stand 
back  and  leave  the  contest  to  the  English- 
speaking  peoples,  we  even  then  can  defend 
our  rights,  save  the  world  from  Russian 
absolutism,  and  meet  the  high  obligation 
thrust  upon  us  by  a  friendly  Providence, 
provided  that  we  understand  that  the  strife 
is  like  the  old  tolke  knife  strife  of  the 
Swedes,  where  the  contestants  are  bound 
together  by  a  rope  around  their  waists,  are 
armed  with  a  stout  knife,  and  fight  to  the 
finish  a  mortal  strife,  provided  that  we  un- 
84 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

derstand  its  decisive  character  and  have  but 
one  argument,  and  that  is  war  to  the  bitter 
end ;  that  we  have  but  one  plan,  and  that  is 
victory  or  death ;  that  we  have  but  one  pur- 
pose, and  that  the  absolute  control  of  the 
Pacific,  cost  what  it  may.  With  such  con- 
victions and  purpose  we  can  help  liberty  to 
her  last  and  final  triumph,  and  secure  civil 
and  religious  freedom  for  mankind  forever. 
That  wise  and  sleepless  Providence  has 
cared  for  us,  even  before  our  cradles  were 
made,  and  furnished  defenses  for  our  use. 
About  the  great  walled  cities  of  China  and 
Japan  I  have  seen  the  old  deep  moats  to  be 
flooded  for  defense.  So  about  the  great 
groups  of  English-speaking  peoples  and 
possessions  God  has  dug  and  flooded  his 
deep  and  almost  impassable  moats.  Look 
at  them.  The  United  States,  Canada,  Eng- 
land, South  Africa,  Australia,  and  New  Zea- 
land, protected  by  God's  moats.  Some  one 
who  fixes  the  bounds  and  habitations  of  the 
85 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

nations  inspired  and  ordered  these  colonies 
and  States  and  empires.  The  channel  and 
the  tempest  did  most  to  destroy  the  Spanish 
Armada.  So  God  has  made  ready  his  chan- 
nels, and  can  easily  cut  the  leashes  of  storm 
and  tempest  about  these  centers  of  English- 
speaking  peoples,  these  homes  of  liberty  and 
Christianity.  It  is  for  us  merely  to  use  the 
defenses  offered  us.  This  Isthmian  Canal, 
that  last  possible  revolution  in  the  geog- 
raphy of  the  world,  must  be  put  through. 
We  must  have  a  great  navy  that  can  offset 
any  navy  created  by  Russia,  and  so  prac- 
tically neutralize  the  tens  of  millions  of  sol- 
diers possible  to  Asia. 

There  Remains  to  Us  Another  Duty, 

The  enlistment  and  marshaling  of   forces 

that  surpass  all  other  forces  in  the  field,  the 

spiritual   forces  of  God's  government  and 

Providence.     How  can  I  enter  this  field? 

Who  can  venture  into  the  war  counsel  of 
86 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  Almighty?  God's  heart  is  fixed  and 
his  mind  is  set.  He  says :  "O  that  there 
were  such  an  heart  in  you  that  you  would 
hear  my  voice !  How  can  I  give  you  up  ? 
The  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 
Nevertheless  I  will  be  inquired  of  by  the 
House  of  Israel  to  do  these  things." 

God  Waits  for  the  Prayer  of  Israel. 

We  must  work  and  use  the  human  agencies, 
but  the  victory  comes  only  from  God. 
When  we  have  come  to  our  limit  God  comes 
in.  Our  extremity  is  God's  opportunity. 
Paul  may  plant  and  Apollos  water,  but  it 
is  God  that  giveth  the  increase. 

It  is  borne  in  upon  me  to  say  to  these 
workers,  that  the 

Time   for    Prayer,   Agonizing    Prayer, 
Sacrificing  Prayer,  Has  Come. 

We  are  only  playing  with  this  matter  of 
87 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

saving  the  world.  We,  as  a  Church,  have 
not  yet  straightened  our  traces  on  this  load. 
During  the  Civil  War  we  gave  in  money, 
and  in  our  credit  as  a  Nation,  an  average 
of  one  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  each  man, 
woman,  and  child  to  re-establish  this  Gov- 
ernment and  give  freedom  to  three  million 
slaves,  whose  bodies  only  were  in  bondage. 
Surely  virtue,  economy,  industry,  temper- 
ance, honesty  must  count  for  something. 
We  must  be  up  to  the  average.  We  gave 
our  pro  rata  share.  Surely  if  this  mission 
work  were  upon  us  with  the  same  burden 
and  pressure  and  grip,  we  could  give  as 
much  in  cash  and  credit  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  blessed  government  of  our  God 
over  a  lost  and  revolted  world,  and  to  give 
freedom  to  a  thousand  million  helpless  ones 
in  the  direst  bondage  of  both  body  and  soul. 
That  is  not  impossible.  That  means  that 
our  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  alone,  in- 
stead of  struggling  to  raise  one  million  and 
88 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

a  half  in  a  year,  could  raise  more  than  three 
hundred  million  dollars  a  year.  I  know 
you  stagger  as  I  do  at  these  figures ;  but  we 
have  given  this,  and  if  we  were  near  enough 
to  the  Son  of  God  to  hear  the  broken- 
hearted sobs  and  feel  the  anguish  of  Geth- 
semane,  if  we  were  near  enough  to  the  chis- 
eled rock  of  Calvary  to  hear  that  agonizing, 
heart-breaking  cry  that  rent  the  veil  of  the 
temple,  and  rent  the  trembling  rocks  of  that 
bloody  summit,  and  rent  the  granite  doors 
of  death,  and  echoed  through  the  universe 
as  if  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  were  driving 
suns  and  stars  from  his  presence,  that  one 
only  cry  in  all  the  eternities  breaking  the  in- 
finite heart  of  God,  "My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me  \"  if  we  could  really 
hear  that  cry  we  could  easily  repeat  and 
surpass  these  old  gifts  for  the  war.  Even 
if  we  gave  only  one-third  of  it,  what  could 
not  be  done  with  one  hundred  million  of 
consecrated  and  holy  money?  The  world's 
7  89 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

salvation  is  reduced  to  a  question  of  dollars 
and  cents.  We  have  the  blood  of  the  atone- 
ment, we  have  the  resurrected  Son  of  God. 
We  have  the  gospel,  we  have  the  experi- 
ence of  saving  grace,  we  have  the  theology, 
we  have  hosts  of  scholarly  believers.  We 
have  the  material  agencies,  Bibles,  presses, 
steamboats,  railroads,  translations,  gram- 
mars, and  the  open  doors  of  the  world — all 
the  appliances,  ready  and  waiting.  All  we 
lack  is  the  money.  We  have  not  scratched 
the  surface  of  our  possible  giving.  God, 
pity  us !  Jesus  pleads.  He  says :  "I  emptied 
myself  of  the  glory  I  had  with  the  Father 
before  the  worlds  were  made.  I  had  all  the 
wealth  of  all  the  Ophirs,  and  of  all  the  Aus- 
tralias,  and  of  all  the  Californias,  and  of  all 
worlds,  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bod- 
ily. Yet  for  your  sakes,  to  save  you,  to 
save  the  world,  I  exchanged  the  scepter  that 
swayed  over  all  intelligences  for  the  spikes 

of  a  felon's  cross,  exchanged  the  songs  of 
90 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

the  angels  for  the  hooting  of  the  mob,  ex- 
changed the  unspeakable  glory  of  the  eter- 
nal court  for  the  gloom  of  a  human  sepul- 
cher;  for  your  sake  I  became  so  poor  that 
I  had  not  where  to  lay  my  head.  Now  I 
call  upon  you  to  come  after  me  to  take  up 
your  cross  and  follow  me,  knowing  that  if 
any  man  have  not  my  Spirit  he  is  none  of 
mine.  Come  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  against  the  mighty." 
IWhat  is  our  answer  ? 

Our  giving  is  only  sixty  cents  a  year. 
This  is  no  answer.  O,  thou  sorrowing  and 
dying  Son  of  God,  have  mercy  upon  us. 
Pour  thy  Spirit  upon  us  till  we  count  it  all 
joy  to  give  and  sacrifice  for  thee,  till  we  un- 
derstand the  fellowship  of  thy  suffering. 

Our  First  Need  is  Prayer, 

Mighty  prayer  that  our  eyes  may  be  opened, 

that  our  hearts  may  be  opened,  that  our 

pockets  may  be  opened.   Our  day  is  passing 

9i 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

swifter  than  a  weaver's  shuttle.  It  is  borne 
in  upon  me  that  the  Son  of  God  is  weeping 
over  us  as  he  wept  over  Jerusalem,  saying, 
"How  oft  would  I  have  gathered  thy  chil- 
dren together  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chick- 
ens under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not." 
May  we  awake  and  pray  lest  we  hear  the 
rest  of  the  sentence!  'Behold,  your  house 
is  left  unto  you  desolate!" 

We  are  within  reach  of  Asia.  We  can 
crowd  our  messengers  into  China  and  India. 
God  can  yet  reach  those  millions.  God  can 
yet  give  us  the  liberality  necessary  to  reach 
and  save  the  seven  hundred  millions  of 
China  and  India.  These  lands  are  still  open. 
God  will  hear  and  answer  prayer.  My  faith 
looks  up  to  thee,  thou  Lamb  of  Calvary. 

There;  is  Great  Russia. 

We  must  pray  mightily  for  Russia.    We 
ought  to  enter  Russia  with  a  great  mission- 
ary force.    There  she  stands,  blocking  the 
92 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

door  of  the  future.  As  I  look  at  her  she 
seems  the  greatest  field,  the  most  inviting 
field  under  the  stars.  One  hundred  and 
twenty-five  millions  of  people,  not  an  effete 
race,  the  virile  and  conquering  race  of  all 
Asia ;  most  of  them  free  from  idolatry,  with 
the  open  Bible  in  their  hands,  and  observing 
the  forms  of  Christian  worship;  most  of 
them  within  the  reach  of  Christian  altars, 
lacking  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  lacking  the 
saving  power  of  the  gospel,  lacking  the  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  new  life  received  by 
faith  only  in  Jesus  Christ.  Just  now  since 
we  last  met  the  Lord  has  touched  the  heart 
of  the  Czar,  and  the  doors  of  Russia  have 
swung  back,  the  hinges  set  in  bigotry  for 
generations,  clogged  with  the  rust  of  cen- 
turies, have  moved  back,  pushed  by  the  hand 
of  God.  The  Czar  has  ordered  universal 
religious  liberty  throughout  his  wide  empire. 
God  can  bring  the  spirit  of  the  people  up 
to  the  liberal  edict  of  the  Czar.  This  field, 
93 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

with  the  open  Bible  and  with  open  gates, 
is  white  and  ready  for  the  reapers. 

Russia  Saved,  Asia  is  Saved. 

There  never  was  such  demand  for  prayer, 
prayer,  mighty  prayer  for  Russia,  that  God 
will  pour  out  his  Spirit  upon  Russia  and  call 
to  the  minds  of  that  people  the  Word  which 
he  has  spoken  to  them.  He  can  quicken  this 
Word,  now  lying  dormant  in  their  hearts, 
and  sweep  over  that  empire  in  miraculous 
power.  God  can  raise  up  some  Wesley,  who 
will  call  the  dead  Greek  Church  from  its 
sepulcher,  and  make  it  stand  on  its  feet. 
Our  high  duty  is  prayer,  prayer,  prevailing 
prayer  for  Russia;  prayer  that  God  will 
arouse  the  Powers  to  preserve  the  integrity 
of  China ;  prayer  that  God  will  put  a  bit  in 
the  teeth  of  Russia,  saying,  "Thus  far  may- 
est  thou  go,  and  no  farther/'  till  vital  godli- 
ness shall  burn  in  all  Russian  hearts ;  prayer 
that  God  will  show  us  these  fields  and  make 
94 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

us  feel  their  greatness ;  prayer  that  God  will 
inspire  within  us  the  spirit  of  consecrated, 
abundant  giving  up  to  the  limit  of  our  abil- 
ity; prayer  that  God  may  display  resistless 
supernatural  power  in  the  miraculous  spread 
of  the  gospel  over  China;  prayer  that  the 
gospel  may  speedily  reach  and  conquer 
every  caste  and  family  of  India ;  prayer  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  may  fall  upon  all  the  cold 
altars  and  upon  all  the  formal  and  nominal 
Christians  of  all  Churches,  quickening  them 
into  spiritual  life;  prayer,  agonizing  prayer 
that  the  command  of  the  Son  of  God  to  go 
into  all  the  world  may  so  sink  into  every 
professing  Christian's  heart,  that  he  can  find 
no  rest  till  he  is  willing  to  go  or  send. 

Our  God  is  the  living  God.  He  hears  and 
answers  prayer.  Daniel  called  upon  him, 
and  the  mouths  of  the  lions  were  closed. 
He  can  close  the  mouth  of  the  Bear. 

Elijah,  the  Tishite,  stood  against  AhaU, 
and  said:  "As  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liv- 
95 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

eth,  before  whom  I  stand,  there  shall  not  be 
dew  nor  rain  these  years  but  according  to 
my  word."  These  were  heroic  words  of 
faith.  Such  was  his  faith  that  the  heavens 
were  turned  to  brass  and  the  earth  to  drift- 
ing dust.  This  same  prophet  went  up  to 
the  top  of  Carmel  and  cast  himself  down 
upon  the  earth,  and  put  his  face  between 
his  knees,  and  called  upon  God  for  rain. 
Six  times  he  sent  his  servant  to  look  toward 
the  sea;  but  the  servant  returned,  saying, 
"There  is  nothing."  The  heavens  were  still 
as  brass  and  the  earth  as  powder.  But  the 
old  prophet's  faith  failed  not.  He  held  on 
to  God  and  sent  his  servant  the  seventh  time. 
Then  the  servant  returned  and  said,  "Be- 
hold, there  ariseth  a  little  cloud  out  of  the 
sea  like  a  man's  hand!"  Thus  Elijah's 
prayer  closed  and  opened  the  windows  of 
heaven.  His  prayer  loosed  the  forces  of 
famine  and  death,  or  bound  them  at  his  will. 
The  God  of  Elijah  still  hears  and  answers 
96 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

prayer.  We  must  go  up  into  the  mount  of 
prayer.  Already  there  is  a  little  cloud  over 
Asia  like  a  man's  hand.  It  is  possible  to 
make  it  a  mighty  flood.  It  shall  be  unto  us 
according  to  our  faith. 

This  old  record  bristles  with  supernatural 
power  from  end  to  end.  It  is  one  long 
demonstration  that  God  hears  and  answers 
the  cry  of  his  children.  There  is  hardly  a 
page  that  does  not  display  supernatural  an- 
swer to  prayer  clear  enough  to  found  and 
vindicate  a  supernatural  Church.  We  have 
not  forgotten  the  deliverance  of  the  Hebrew 
children,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed- 
nego.  They  said:  "O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we 
are  not  careful  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter. 
If  it  be  so,  if  you  do  cast  us  into  the  burning 
fiery  furnace,  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able 
to  deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace, 
and  he  will  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand, 
O  king.  But  if  not,  even  if  he  does  not 
deliver  us,  we  are  worth  more  to  burn  than 
97 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

for  any  other  purpose.  Be  it  Known  unto 
thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy 
gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which 
thou  hast  set  up."  The  king  was  wroth. 
The  furnace  was  heated  seven  times  more 
than  it  was  wont  to  be  heated.  "These  men 
were  bound  in  their  coats,  their  hosen  and 
their  hats  and  their  other  garments,  and 
were  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  burning, 
fiery  furnace.  The  strong  men  that  cast 
these  men  into  the  furnace  were  killed  by 
the  flames.  But  these  three  men  fell  down 
bound  into  the  midst  of  the  burning,  fiery 
furnace.  Then  Nebuchadnezzar  was  aston- 
ished. He  said:  "Did  we  not  cast  these 
three  men  bound  into  the  midst  of  the  fire  ? 
.  .  .  Lo,  I  see  four  men  loose,  walking  in 
the  midst  of  the  fire,  and  they  have  no  hurt, 
and  the  form  of  the  Fourth  is  like  the  Son 
of  God."  The  king  called  out,  "  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abednego,  ye  servants  of  the 
Most   High    God,    come    forth   and   come 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

hither."  And  the  princes,  governors  and 
captains  and  counselors,  saw  these  men, 
upon  whose  bodies  the  fire  had  no  power, 
nor  was  a  hair  of  their  head  singed,  neither 
were  their  coats  changed,  nor  the  smell  of 
fire  had  passed  on  them.  (Dan.  iii,  16-27.) 
The  king  said,  "There  is  no  other  god  that 
can  deliver  after  this  sort."  But  our  God 
can  deliver  after  this  sort.  He  can  do  it 
to-day  as  easily  as  in  the  days  of  these  three 
Hebrew  children.  He  is  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever.  If  we  will  call 
upon  him,  and  refuse  to  bow  down  to  the 
gods  of  Fear  and  Doubt,  and  stand  up 
straight  for  him,  willing  to  take  whatever 
comes,  the  form  of  the  Fourth,  like  unto 
the  Son  of  God,  will  walk  with  us  through 
the  kindling  fires  of  this  world's  empires, 
and  bring  us  out  without  our  having  our 
garments  changed,  without  having  a  hair  of 
our  head  singed,  and  without  the  smell  of 
fire  upon  us.  He  hears  and  answers  prayer. 
99 


Missions  and  World  Movements. 

Peter  was  cast  into  prison  and  kept  for 
the  day  of  execution.  But  the  little  perse- 
cuted Church  in  the  house  of  John  Mark 
and  his  mother,  Mary,  called  upon  God, 
and  God  heard  and  said  to  one  of  his  angels : 
"There  is  my  servant  Peter;  thrice  he  de- 
nied me,  but  now  he  is  in  prison  for  me. 
And  the  little  Church  there  is  praying  day 
and  night,  and  asking  me  to  deliver  him. 
Go  and  bring  him  out  of  prison,  and  let 
him  go  to  the  Praying  Society  yonder  in 
Mary's  house/  Then  the  angel  went  down 
to  the  prison  and  went  into  the  dungeon 
where  Peter  was  chained.  He  needed  no 
key,  for  He  who  gave  to  the  iron  its  co- 
hesion had  sent  him,  and  the  bolts  recog- 
nized the  authority  of  their  Maker,  and  slid 
back  before  his  messenger.  He  needed  no 
torch,  for  his  face  illumined  the  dungeon 
as  if  a  sun  had  risen  in  it.  He  smote  Peter 
on  the  side,  and  Peter  arose,  and  the  chains, 

manacles,  and  shackles  fell  off,  and  the  dun- 
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Missions  and  World  Movements. 

geon  door  stood  aside,  and  the  great  gates 
of  the  outer  wall  recognized  God's  angel 
and  rolled  back  to  let  him  pass.  There  is 
nothing  difficult  for  God  when  his  believing 
children  need  him  and  ask  for  his  help.  He 
did  hear  and  answer  the  crying  little  society 
in  Mary's  house,  and  did  miraculously  de- 
liver Peter.  So  he  will  hear  this  Methodist 
Church  if  only  we  call  upon  him,  and  he  will 
deliver  his  cause  from  peril.  We  are  at 
the  parting  of  the  ways.  We  are  in  the 
breach.  It  is  for  us  by  our  works  and 
prayer  to  decide. 

Look  at  Moses  yonder  on  the  mountain 
pleading  for  Israel.  There  on  the  plains 
stretches  the  camp  of  Israel.  In  the  midst 
of  the  camp  is  an  altar  and  the  golden  calf. 
Israel  is  on  her  face  worshiping  the  calf, 
and  saying:  "These  be  thy  gods,  O  Israel, 
that  took  thee  by  the  hand  and  led  thee  out 
of  the  house  of  bondage/     God's  anger  is 

stirred,  and  he  says  to  Moses :  "Go,  get  thee 
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Missions  and  Woru>  Movements. 

'down  to  thy  people  whom  thou  hast  brought 
out  of  Egypt,  for  behold,  they  have  cor- 
rupted themselves."  Moses,  poor  little 
Moses,  who  the  other  day  did  not.  dare  to 
speak  even  to  poor  little  Pharaoh,  now  in 
this  hour  of  destiny  stands  boldly  before  his 
angered  God  and  asks,  "Why  is  thine  anger 
kindled  against  thy  people  whom  thou 
broughtest  out  of  the  land  of  bondage  ?" 
God  said,  "Let  me  alone  that  mine  anger 
may  wax  hot  against  them."  Moses  clung  to 
the  very  vesture  of  God,  and  cried,  "Where 
are  thy  promises  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and 
to  Jacob  ?"  God  said,  as  if  to  buy  him  off, 
"I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  people."  Moses 
held  fast,  crying,  "What  will  the  heathen 
say,  that  thou  broughtest  out  thy  people 
into  the  wilderness  to  slay  them?  If  thy 
promises  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob 
fail,  blot  me  out  of  thy  Book,  but  spare 
Israel."  The  honor  of  God  was  touched, 
and  he  was  held  in  the  grip  of  heroic  sacri- 

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Missions  and  World  Movements. 

fice.  He  yielded,  and  Israel  was  spared. 
Brothers,  what  vast  responsibilities  rest 
upon  us  who  have  the  promises  of  God! 
If  we,  as  a  Church,  will  rise  to  the  heroism 
of  our  crisis,  and  by  relieving  prayer  cry, 
"O  God,  have  mercy  upon  us,  take  our  sub- 
stance according  to  thy  will,  take  ourselves 
for  any  service,  and  if  need  be  take  even 
our  children,  but  save  great  Asia,  and  bring 
this  world  into  the  light  and  liberty  of  the 
gospel !"  if  only  we  will  thus  pray  and  give 
and  believe,  God  will  hear  us  as  certainly  as 
he  heard  Moses.  This  generation  of  believ- 
ers will  see  the  salvation  of  this  generation 
of  sinners,  and  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
will  become  the  kingdom  of  our  God  and 
of  his  Christ. 


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